


The Escape: Tales Of The Alliance

by Chrissy Amber (chrissyamber)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Multi, Other, Suicide Attempt, anticorporate, antifa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2018-10-24 03:25:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 23
Words: 24,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10733160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrissyamber/pseuds/Chrissy%20Amber
Summary: The Year is 3729. The Alliance of Worlds, known as The Alliance, is a Utopian collective of planets that pursue individual interest, leisure, and advanced science and engineering. The Alliance ruling body is known as The Corporation. The Corporation has several branches from which people can choose to serve: Sci-Corp, where The Alliance research and development takes place, The Alliance Military Corp, which guards cargo ships between Alliance worlds, and the Offworld Engineering Corp, which handles things like Terraforming worlds, setting up mining and resource collection operations, remote manufacturing of goods, and expansion of this Utopian Civilization.Except it's all a lie.





	1. The Escape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Any Anarcho-Feminist who is anti-cap antifa anti-terf anti-swerf](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Any+Anarcho-Feminist+who+is+anti-cap+antifa+anti-terf+anti-swerf).



"Ugh, I don't want to get out of bed", thought Christine Meier as her alarm went off at 0700. She hit the snooze button but didn't return to sleep. She just tossed and turned, and finally, just before her alarm went off again, she set up. "Fuck them." She turned her alarm off, got up, took a shower, got dressed, and headed into work. Christine always dressed as plain as possible. Her hair tied back in a pony tail. Minimal makeup. White blouse, black slacks, and a long lab coat buttoned up to the bust. The less attention she got from men, the better, as that attention had always been degrading, abusive, and altogether unpleasant. She worked as a physicist and engineer at SciCorp, Division 7 Ward 4. And while there were plenty of women in Division 7, she was the only one in Ward 4. Despite being 3729, there were still a lot of misogynistic attitudes about women in science. The Divisions were set up 1 - 7, where the lower the number, the "softer" the science. The higher the number, the "harder" the science. Division 7 was Applied Advanced Theory and Engineering. Ward 1 was made up of research techs. To get to Ward 4, you had to be not only proficient, but masterful at both theoretical physics, and bringing it to life with advanced engineering. Ward 4 was made up of 4 men, and Christine. The constant jokes about "get me coffee", "get me a sandwich", and random sexual assaults were intolerable. But today was the day she would shut them up for good.

It's customary for a SciCorp Agent one Ward above to review and grade the progress of Agents for any given Ward, and this was no exception. Ward 5 Agent Mikhael Sokolov entered Ward 4 unannounced. Everyone was at their feet. "Ward 4 Agent Christine Meier. I'm here to grade your project." The men tried to hold back snickers because they started three weeks ago and they were still in the R&D phase. "Yes, sir." She handed him a device. "What does it do?" Asked Sokolov. "It's a medcorder. It can scan the entire body at a quantum level and tell you diseases that might pop up ten years from now." Agent Sokolov took the device and used it on himself. "This is completely accurate. I'm getting a new liver from drinking too much. Welcome to Ward 5." You could see the anger and hostility on the men's faces. But Agent Sokolov scoured at them and said, "If you were a tenth as good as Agent Meier, you would have seen this coming."

They walk together to a remote part of the base. When they get there, it's Agent Sokolov, Agent Meier, and a woman. "Agent Christine Meier. Pleased to meet you." She nodded nonchalantly and waved. "Smith, Patricia. Working." She continued to ignore the other two. Agent Sokolov explains, "She's hyper-focused on her project. Ward 5 is a little different. Not only do you have to demonstrate a mastery of theoretical physics and bring it to life with Engineering, but our job is to create better equipment for The Alliance Military Corp." Finally Agent Smith turned around and Christine had a moment of realization. Patricia had long flowing red hair, white freckled skin, full lips for a white girl, green eyes, and curves. God did she have all the right curves. "Fuck, I'm gay. I'm really fucking gay." Of course she thought this to herself, as SciCorp doesn't tolerate homosexuality. "Keep it together" she said to herself repeatedly. Finally she decided she could ignore the distraction by digging into her work. "So what's my assignment, Agent Sokolov?" Agent Sokolov smiled. "Whatever you want. Free reign." Christine's eyes widened a bit. "So a real challenge for once?" Patricia turned around and laughed. "I like you" she said and smiled. Christine blushed big time and got to work.

About a week later, another agent came to visit. When he entered the door, Agent Sokolov and Agent Smith immediately stood up. Christine was so engrossed in her work that she didn't even notice. "Sir, what brings you here?" The man says, "This girl of yours has gotten my attention. Christine Meier?" Hearing her name caused her to come out of her hyper focused state. "Yes, sir?" The man walked up and introduced himself. "I am Ward 7 Agent Miller. Ward 6 is a little busy at the moment and so I thought I'd stop by. That's an interesting piece on your desk? Is that a model?" Christine replied with a smile, "No sir, that's the fully functioning power core of a new design of fighter I'm making." Everyone in the room bugged their eyes and you could hear a "What?" in unison. Agent Miller said, "That can fit in my hand? What the hell kind of power core is that?" Christine Meier said, "it's a quantum vacuum inversion drive". Agent Miller said, "I haven't even heard a theory on that. Is that a new field?" She replied, "Yeah, I finished the math yesterday." Agent Miller smiled. "Christine. You're coming with me. Welcome to Ward 7." Christine was not as enthusiastic as one would think, because she wanted to spend more time with Patricia. However, she figured it would help her focus and not obsess with her. She grabbed her data and prototypes and followed Agent Miller to Ward 7.

There was no one there but Miller and Christine. There were large arrays of supercomputers running as a cluster, and dozens of computer terminals from which to work on separate projects. "Half of this lab is yours. Frankly, I can't even use a tenth of it to its potential. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are catered, and there are men's and women's dorms through that door. Work at least 40 hours a week, but you're welcome to work much, much more. Your pay is now E10. No one under a Five Star General gets an E10 pay grade. You also get paid vacation for three weeks a year, maternity leave of up to a year with some work from home stipulations, and unrestricted access to BarterWorld." Christine was beyond words. "Thank you sir. I won't let you down." He smiled. Chrissy didn't know a whole lot about BarterWorld, but from what she gathered, any Tech that isn't suitable for consumption on Earth due to minor or major flaws is sold there, whether it's completely functional yet cosmetically flawed, to flawed beyond functions and sold for parts and scrap. There are also lots of markets, lots of indigenous food from human history, and some rather shady characters and a criminal underground. But no one messes with SciCorp. That never goes well.

In no time Chrissy had all of the terminals on her half of the lab cranking processes full tilt using 49.97% of the Super Computer Cluster's resources working on various projects... research projects including quantum computer, along with quantum AI, 23-axis thruster system, sensors that are equally sensitive over an entire parsec, inertial dampeners and anti-gravity, gravatic sensors, a souped up hyper-drive, and 4-way Hyper Force Fields. Someone from Ward 8 comes in, unannounced, never gives a name, watches Chrissy work, and then just leaves. Chrissy was so caught up in her work that she didn't even notice the visitor.

After five months of research and prototyping, Chrissy comes in and finds that someone, an Agent Hyperion, has been looking at her files. Not copying them, just looking at them. So she tries to look him up in the computer systems. And she doesn't have clearance. She looks for any works published by Agent Hyperion. A large number of the studies are field tests of Chrissy's inventions but used for warfare. They mention testing on civilian populations on Alliance Worlds. They mention tests for tracking and tracing Anti-Corp, the rebels who steal Tech and terrorize Tech shipment convoys. It looks like their using Chrissy's tech to enforce a fascist regime. Chrissy goes to her old apartment, which was still in her name, and grabbed all of her pillows and blankets and hid in the closet and cried for four hours. She couldn't get the images out of her head. Briefly she contemplates suicide. It would be easy to override the space station airlock safety controls. Then her anger sets in. No, she's going to make them pay. She's going to mete all of her wrath at SciCorp and The Corporation. But first she needs to get the fuck out of dodge.

Chrissy starts manufacturing all of the components for her ship. She sets a programmed timer that in 12 hours it will delete all of her data and all record of her and her research. She has all of the manufactured components that can't be carted to the Hangar bay delivered. She finishes assembling the ship and powering it up just as the program starts to go to work. In the moments before the program finishes its business, she transfers all of her credits to her ship's computer, says she's deporting for BarterWorld for supplies, and takes off.

But of course she can't go to BarterWorld, they will look for her there. She can't go to Earth. If she goes to the world where the civilian testing went on, they might find her soon. She picks an Alliance world at random. She finds a clearing in a forest big enough for her ship and lands. Then she sends out an AM frequency signal that reaches across the planet but not farther. She just repeats SOS. No one uses AM or FM frequency anymore, but Chrissy bet if a resistance cell was trying to communicate in close proximity, they'd use an ancient technology like that instead of the hyperspace communications relay. After about three days, someone comes on the radio. "Killroy to unknown vessel. State your emergency." Chrissy hesitated. "I'm on the run from SciCorp." The voice replied, "Too bad for you." Chrissy replied, "Do you know of any safe harbor?" The voice replied, "You try BarterWorld?" Chrissy answered, "They'd look for me there first." The voice came on again after a moment. "What's you're location, I'm going to scan you." She gave him the coordinates according to standard planetary mapping codes. He scans the ship. "Who did you steal that from?" She yelled back, "I fucking designed and built it myself fuck you very much." The man replied, "I'll be back in two days. Sit tight."

Chrissy set out with a plasma rifle to hunt some game so she had some food to eat. She wasn't a hunter by any means, but she did have marksman training, and within hours she had a cat-like antelope and a squirrel the size of an armadillo roasting on a spit. She improvised a water boiler to purify some water from a stream nearby. Her thoughts turned to Patricia... she had been dreaming of her since the day they met. 

Two days later, the ship's comm came to life on the same AM frequency. "Proceed to Genacia, use FM channel 101.23 and instructions will be given."

 

 


	2. Genacia

Former Ward 7 Agent Christine Meier arrived on Genacia within a couple of hours. Genacia was mostly a desert world with very fine white sand. An ocean covered roughly 1/18th of the planet. Drilling platforms, mines, and salt harvesters spotted the planet, a long with facilities for the guards, warden, cafeteria, and everything needed to keep a working population going indefinitely. The work force was mostly dissidents and criminals (citizens who couldn't pay their bills usually).  In total the population of the planet was about 3 million. Tons and tons of raw materials were lifted from the planet every week. Supplies were brought in for the slave workers at that time as well. The Military Governors and guards at well, and the workers only had scraps. Here you can clearly see what Anti-Corp was fighting for. The brutality of it all reminded her of what she found in the Sci-Corp databases. She still couldn't believe her Tech was used for such cruel purposes.  
  
As per instructions, she broadcast on radio frequencies using FM channel 101.23. She simply sent an SOS. A voice came on the channel. "Scanning ship. Identity confirmed. Is your ship submersible?" She responded with Morse for "Yes". The voice continued, "Proceed to these coordinates. It's the middle of the ocean. Drop to 15 feet above the seafloor. From there on we'll use sonar Morse." She flies to the coordinates, engages a shield, and drops to 15 foot above the sea floor. She sends out a sonar pulse in Morse code "Present". They direct her to a vast cave that's 300 miles N-NW. Inside is an airlock big enough for a freighter. When the water is pumped out, the inner blast doors open.

"So you're the rogue SciCorp agent we've heard so much about" says a man. He's about 6'5" tall, really handsome, black hair kept neat and short, brown eyes, dark skin. "I'm Commander Okeke. But on comms I'm StarFire. We use code names to hide our identities from The Corporation." Chrissy replied, "Former Ward 7 Agent Christine Meier." Commander Okeke looked shocked. "Ward 7? Wow we've never got anyone from SciCorp above Ward 5. They must be really pissed." A woman walks in. Tall, leggy, blonde, and curves for miles. "She's got a 300 Million Credit bounty on her alive only." Chrissy just stares.... and barely mutters a "hi..." The woman laughs and comments, "you've got it bad don't you?" Chrissy answers confused, "What?" The woman leans in close and whispers, "The Gay." She turns beet red and nods strongly. The woman says, "Oh you're so cute. I'll have to introduce you to my wife..." Suddenly Chrissy's heart fell in her chest... "wife? you're taken?" The woman says, "I'm Captain Jules. Callsign Maverick. She's gonna like you." She says flirtingly as she leaves.

Commander Okeke comments, "Many SciCorp take some adjustment to our openness in certain regards... such as gender, sexuality, presentation. We just want quality people fighting these fascist oligarchs." She nods. "I read about what SciCorp did with my tech on Omicron 3.... to civilians..." as she starts to cry... "What the fuck kind of monsters was I working for?" The whole emotion of it just broke all at once. Commander Okeke replied, hugging her, "What the fuck kind of monsters indeed."

The Commander abruptly let go. "Get cleaned up. Get a change of clothes. We have a meeting in 30 minutes." Just go down the hall on the right and pick a free bunk. Less than half an hour later she was in a flight suit, minimal makeup, hair in a ponytail, and sitting in the Command Center. At the head of the table was General Combs. She was 5'9, brown hair, light skinned, and fairly muscular. Also in attendance was Maverick, and several others who were also dressed in flight suits. The General spoke up, "Captain Meier, you may have heard us referred to as Anti-Corp. However, internally we refer to ourselves as OHM, Offworld Home Militia, and our ruling body is called the OHM Council." At this point Chrissy was fighting to keep from laughing her ass off...

Everyone in the room smiles. "Congratulations," said General Combs. "You passed the test." Chrissy looked shocked. "What did I do?" She smiled. "You laughed at a really stupid joke. You didn't call it out for being dumb. Fascists have no sense of humor. Well there are other reasons for not laughing, but that would have lead to more tests." Chrissy said, "So I pass because I laughed?" She smiled. "Yes. Welcome Captain Meier. You will get a call sign after your first mission. First, let me introduce your team. You already know StarFire and Maverick. The dainty one and Maverick's wife is Firestorm. The lanky guy is Scout. The big, beautiful Russian woman is Bulldozer. And the Japanese Beauty is Shadow. Each of these Captain's call signs are based off of their unique tech and fighting style. Commander StarFire uses plasma weapons. Maverick has reflexes and piloting ability that borders on psychic. Firestorm uses super-oxidizers and fuel based attacks, melting through ships. Scout's ship is insanely fast with wicked sensors. Bulldozer has super-reinforced front hull sections for ramming at high speeds, and Shadow has cloaking technology and EM shielding. StarFire is a Captain, but he's also the Commander of your unit. He's going to take you out on your solo mission. StarFire is only going to observe. There's a Tech transport going to Siberus 3. Intercept them disable them. We'll send in a crew to claim the prize." Chrissy and StarFire both acknowledge and head towards their ships.


	3. Polaris

As soon as they drop out of hyperspace in orbit around Siberius 3. Siberius was a binary star system with a Blue star co orbiting a larger White star. There were 6 planets orbiting the binary star system, and the furthest out was a gas giant. Siberius 3 was rich in rare minerals necessary for building Hyperspace ships as well as all kinds of advanced tech. You could see mining colonies there as well, along with the usual compounds necessary to house and contain the slave labor. The binary stars orbiting each other were a sight to behold, but then suddenly a lot of the light was blocked out.   
  
StarFire and Chrissy both knew they had been set up. In addition to the transport, there were 3 Alliance Military Corp Capital Ships and tens of thousands of fighters were already deploying. Chrissy said, "StarFire, hide behind the moon but keep me on sensors. They're after me." And she takes off into the swarm of fighters. StarFire yelled, "It's suicide". Chrissy radioed back, "Finally, a challenge." "Computer, set internal inertial to 100% synchronous, external inertia to 3%. Engage automatic collision detection and maneuvering. Fire up all thrusters on 23 axis and use at will. Engage Electron Polarity Bombs. Shields to full." The AI answered back, "Confirmed." With her 23 axis thrusters and inertia at 3%, the ship could turn on any one of 23 axes on the width of a human hair at full speed, which was 30000000 m/s. She programmed her AI using her keypad to create a flight path that used sudden turns in unpredictable directions, speeds, and rotations to do the following: make enemy fighters fire on each other, bounce their heavy particle beams into each other using tangential field collision, and lobbing her own Electron Polarity Bombs at fighters not so much to damage them to but to hurtle them into tumbles they couldn't control with massive concussive force as if they were hit by something with ten thousand times their mass at low speed. Three hours later, the last of the fighters are dead in space and the Capital ships are trying to fire their megacannons of Chrissy and can't hit anything. She starts shooting the capital ships, and since they have a much higher inertia, the Electron Polarity Bombs punch right through their outer hull and she creates about a dozen hull breaches in each ship before they retreat.

She then falls back and checks in with StarFire. He radios, "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" She replied, "I was Ward 7. Of course I'd know how to fight an Alliance Military Corp Fleet." "But those were three Capital ships and tens of thousands of fighters". Chrissy answered, "Yeah, but I'm smarter than all of them." "No doubt," said StarFire. "No Doubt."

They return to base and StarFire gives his report to The General in private. The General responds, "You're making this up." She said. He showed her his data logs. "You're... not... making.. this.. up..." "Captain Meier get in here." Chrissy runs to the Command Center room. "Yes, Ma'am?" "Commander StarFire just filed his report. That is the most reckless, dangerous, wonderful beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. Deputy General StarFire, take Commander Polaris to meet her new team. Tell them and show them what you showed me. We obviously have a leak, and so I'm leaving to get to the bottom of this. You are to only communicate with me outside the base, understood Deputy General?" "Yes Ma'am", said Deputy general StarFire.

Once a conversation and a popcorn worthy movie later, everyone is full of excitement. Chrissy gets a tons of hugs and high fives. Deputy General StarFire threw a huge party with illegal booze, sweet snacks, salty snacks, and red meat dishes, and cheese snacks that are usually reserved for The Corporation Council and ShadowCorp. The party went into the night. The next morning Chrissy wakes up naked on top of a naked Captain Sokolova. Sokolova's belly arched like a giant mommy grizzly, and Chrissy was curled up on top, head resting between her large breasts. As she wakes up, she asks, "Did we... do anything last night?" Sokolova smiles. "Nyet. Just naked cuddles. Good cuddles. Nice cuddles. Shadow watched. Shadow doesn't like to be touched. So this was treat for her." Chrissy smiled. "Wanna do anything now?" Sokolova smiles. "Da."

Four hours later, Sokolova and Chrissy were up and about. With plenty of water and pain killers, hangover getting better, and the sex helped a lot, they were feeling a lot more relaxed. Maverick and FireStorm came out of their room and immediately said, "You finally got some, Bulldozer? Good for you." Sokolova merely said, "Da". FireStorm asked Chrissy, "How was your first time... with a woman?" Chrissy smiled... "Better than I ever dreamed..."  Maverick said, "Well we call dibs next time." and smiled. "I can't wait," said Chrissy.

Deputy General StarFire comes in. "General Combs has been kidnapped and is being held on BarterWorld. It's most likely a trap. Commander Polaris, come up with a plan to get our General back with no loss of life." Chrissy nodded and got everyone in the Command Center.

"As soon as we land, they're going to destroy our ship. We're going to be surrounded by soldiers. They will open fire on everyone but me and take me into custody. Well they won't shoot me fatally. So we need a transport ship that can hold my ship in it, in reserve in case we need it. Then we need a smaller ship that we don't mind getting destroyed. They will likely tell me where they want me to land. As soon as you have that data, you're going to try to get into sniper positions around me. Tops of buildings. Once you see a large explosion, count to five, and then open fire on targets. Where do we get the ships?" Deputy General StarFire says "We have some derelict ships at the bottom of the ocean we use for storage and decoy that won't all fit in the base. I'll scout out the best ones to match your profile and get them moved into the Hanger." Chrissy says, "I need to work on making us some weapons. Besides making plasma sniper rifles, I need to make some other toys for you. Once we neutralize the welcome party, we'll have to carve our way to the hangar where they're holding The General and defeat all of their forces. And none of us are specialized in military combat, so I'm going to have to make some hella fancy toys."

"Dismissed."

 


	4. BarterWorld

BarterWorld was the place where the Military Governors of the various Alliance slave planets went to fatten their pockets. They take sub-par Tech and sell it. Because it's technically black market, they can sell it for a lot higher price than the retail version. Most of the customers are exiles, hobbyists, or buyers who are a proxy for Anti-Corp. The buyers are usually crime syndicates, who then mark the Tech up even higher, and sell it for a profit. The Syndicates own all of the Space hangers, and they have armies of mercenaries. There is a Military Governor of BarterWorld, and the crime syndicates pay him well. In addition, he uses the crime syndicates to collect taxes for the various shops and stores on his behalf. He just sits back and rolls in money. The planet is mostly slums, crumbling buildings, and run down shops. There is one really, really nice hotel in the capital city of BarterTown. There's even a large landing pad made for passengers, not freight, for VIP's to land and conduct business outside of Alliance jurisdiction. And this was exactly the place that they were told to land if they wanted to see their General ever again.

The terms were pure and simple. Hand over former Ward 7 SciCorp Agent Christine Meier, and the General goes free. But Chrissy didn't want to go without putting up a fight. She circled the planet in a beat up old personal transport ship until her crew said they were in position. Then she landed at the prescribed landing pad. As soon as she stepped out of the ship, she was surrounded by 50 Alliance Military Corp soldiers. "Step away from the ship." She complied, walking 10 feet away from the ship. Two of the soldiers picked up rocket launchers and blasted huge holes in the side of the ship, destroying enough of the internals to render it scrap. "Hands up where we can see them." At that moment, she already had her hands in her pocket, hand wrapped around a device, and threw her hands up, throwing the device about 15 feet in the air. She then pushed a button on her belt, and was encompassed in a force field. The device exploded and plasma shot everywhere, melting the soldiers and sending the lucky ones running. Then snipers from the roofs took out the remaining troops using plasma rounds that just go right through their targets. The Alliance Military Corp soldiers, used controlling unarmed civilian populations, were completely unprepared for such a brutal assault. Most of them panicked and didn't move fast enough, and was killed. The ones smart enough to get moving couldn't outrun the snipers. The snipers weren't well trained, or good shots, but the rifles were designed with advanced tech that allowed them to get head shots every time. Then entire scene was a bloodbath. The people on the street were just standing there. Stunned. One woman, and half a dozen snipers, just took out 50 Alliance Military Corp soldiers... And they were scared shitless.

Chrissy asks in a loud voice, "Where's the main port?" A passerby who obviously hated The Corporation came up to her. "Wow that was amazing. How did you do that?" She said calmly. "I'm the Rogue SciCorp Agent." His eyes widened. "Sorry miss, the Main Port is about five miles down this road. You can't miss it." She smiled. "Thank you." She radioed her team. "Port is five miles down this road. Prepare assault mode." She starts to walk the five miles. About half way there, she's stopped by two very large men. Not well sculpted men. Strongmen with thick stomachs and thighs. They look like they could pick up a truck each. "Your bounty is now a Billion Credits. I'm afraid you're coming with us." Considering their size difference, they were not alarmed when she reaches into her pocket and pulls out what looks like a knife handle with no knife. She waves it in front of the guys in a top left to bottom right diagonal direction while holding the button on the blade. You don't ever see a blade manifest, or any real energy. But in reality, pushing the button creates an electron beam denser than Tungsten Carbide and thinner than a scalpel. Their top halves slide off their bottom halves and blood and viscera go everywhere. She lets go of the button, puts the device in her pocket, steps over them and continues walking.

She's walking intentionally slow until she gets the acknowledgement that her team is in position. Then she walks quickly until she gets to the Port. When she gets there it's surrounded by 25 Alliance Military Corp soldiers and a high ranking officer, probably a Commander. "You're... alone... you defeated 50 of our soldiers?" Everyone was pointing their guns at her. "Put your guns down now, and you'll live." She said. The commander yelled, "Aim for the chest, don't damage that brain. FIRE". She pushed the button on her belt and a shield immediately came up. The rounds bounced off and ricocheted and some of them hit soldiers. She took out her electron blade, activated it, and took the head of the Commander. Some soldiers dropped their guns and ran, others fired more intently. The ones that didn't run, she carved up like Thanksgiving turkey.

Then she calmly walked into the Ports where they were supposedly holding the General. As she entered the primary docking bay, there was The General, who was badly beat up, with some device on her head, connected to what looks like a portable recording device. Standing next to her was a man in black power armor. "We had hoped to induct you into ShadowCorp, but it appears our indoctrination was incomplete. I am Agent Abraxas." Chrissy responds, "I saw what you fuckers did with my Tech. I'm going to wipe all of you out." "Funny," said Abraxas. "Let's see you try." Chrissy lounges forward and takes Abraxas' head with her electron blade. It cuts right through his power armor. His head falls on the floor, his face in shock. SciCorp agents rush in and recover his body and load it onto a shuttle. She makes no effort to stop them. She removes the device from General Combs' head, and destroys the machine. She signals the team to enter, and signals the freighter to dock. Then they head back to Genacia.

 

 


	5. High Treason

General Combs, Deputy General StarFire, Commander Polaris (aka Chrissy), Captain Maverick, Captain FireStorm, Captain Scout, Captain Bulldozer, and Captain Shadow are all in the Command Center. General Combs starts the debriefing. "We have a traitor in our organization. At this point we can't pinpoint who. After a thorough review of information security, we have found certain weaknesses that have been remedied. Each General reports directly to one Member of the Anti-Corp Council. The Council Member is only supposed to discuss details of the Council Meetings that pertain to that one General's base. Apparently, several of the Council Members, including mine, has been keeping us Generals apprised of information that were not specific to their base, against InfoSec policy. As such, the traitor could be anyone. In order to stamp this out, Not only is a Council Member not to not discuss general Council matters with Generals and limit conversation to what's applicable to that General, but The Generals are not to discuss details of their operations with the Council except in the most generic of terms. The Council was initially split, when my Council Member mentioned that a traitor on the council would oppose this measure. Then it was adopted unanimously."

Chrissy chimed up. "There's a strong possibility that someone on the Council is a traitor. And there's an easy way to tell. Given the situation, it would make sense that intelligent, uncompromised, unswayed people would immediately vote to protect their assets. Someone, like a ShadowCorp Agent, would have anticipated this development and primed a number of senators to join him in dissent, feeding them lines about how much harder it will be to do their job, how thankless their job is, how they've been fighting this long without seeing any real results. Have your Councilor ask the other Council members directly, in private, "Did any other Councilor approach you about the InfoSec proposal before it was brought to the table?" You don't need to ask anything else. If any one of them says "Yes", the the traitor is on the Council, and is a ShadowCorp agent."

General Combs looks shocked, "What in blazes is ShadowCorp? What are you talking about?" Chrissy explains, "SciCorp is the puppet, and ShadowCorp is the hand. On Earth, all people are given an aptitude test as children. What they don't tell you is that they're measuring your SCIKER level. They're testing for intelligence so great, that they can make predictions about the future that seem like psychic powers. In SciCorp, everyone Ward 4 and above are Theoretical Physiscist/Engineers. They can take advanced theoretical physics and bring actual engineered products from those equations. This is because they have a high SCIKER rating. Anyone with a SCIKER rating when the childhood test is administered is watched carefully and submitted to brutal propaganda. Anyone over 5 is sent off world to be a slave. Some of the very first in the Anti-Corp were these super intelligent slaves. My mom managed to help falsify my test and I was rated at a SCIKER level 3. I wasn't aware that she did that until recently. I moved from Ward 4 to Ward 7 in less than a month. My data was being reviewed by a shadow agent. I traced what I could of him, and while I couldn't find a profile on him, I did manage to find his published works, in which he used my TECH that I develeoped on slave workers in cruel and inhumane ways the likes of I can't bear to repeat. When we rescued you, you were pretty out of it from all the torture, but the guy in the power suit introduced himself as a ShadowCorp Agent named Abraxas. And he revealed they were grooming me to join ShadowCorp."

General Combs said, "This is way, way, way worse than I thought. This is the first The Council has heard of ShadowCorp." Chrissy interjected, "I need to talk directly to our Councilor because I need the wording and tonality to be extremely precise. If she missteps, ShadowCorp could find out which Councilor I work under." The General nodded and said, "Follow me." They went to the dock inside the cave, and took her ship out to the middle of the ocean and approached a derelict wrecked ship. However, there was a functioning dock there. Chrissy followed inside and saw that this was a blast bunker and communications hub built out of this derelict space ship. "Let me get her on the holo." General Combs punched a few buttons, and face came up. "General Combs, this isn't a regular check in. What's the problem." General Combs replied, "Councilor Mabry, I have here the Ward 7 ex-Agent I spoke about. She has a request for you." The Councilor nods, "Commander Polaris, how can I help you?" Chrissy spoke, "I need to know if the most charismatic and self serving person on the council had someone approach them about the InfoSec proposal before it came to discussion during the meeting." She nodded and left. She came right back and said, "Councilor Bryant indicated that Councilor Jenkins did bring up the issue before the meeting. Jenkins is a meek guy but always seems to think twelve moves ahead. He's a great asset to the Council." Chrissy nods. "Councilor, I need you to do me a favor. Jenkins sounds really intelligent, and a great asset. But I need you to trust your own judgement. Councilor Bryant probably has flowery words, and Councilor Jenkins has a vast intelligence, but I need you to represent *us*. Stick up for your convictions. If you feel that your debating prowess is not up to snuff, call to table the motion, and discuss as much of the issue as you can, as generically as possible, and I'll help you. I just want to make sure that such an influential team has a strong foil on the Council. If you can, find an ally to help you in this endeavor." Councilor Mabry says, "What bothers you about Jenkins?" Chrissy answers, "If I were going to dominate the Council, that's what I would do." Councilor Mabry says, "I'll keep you informed." and disconnects. Chrissy says, "We need to go to the Command Center. I have a lot to say to the team."

An hour later everyone was gathered in the Command Center. Chrissy began her debriefing. "I can say with 87% certainty that Councilor Jenkins is a ShadowCorp Agent and his entire team is dead. His base is filled with Alliance Military Corp soldiers and SciCorp agents who are completely loyal and being groomed for ShadowCorp. In order to get Jenkins off the Council, we need to prove this, but if we managed to find his base we'd be outnumbered and fighting on their home turf. So I have a plan to flush them out. But I need to do it in secret. I can't tell you about it until after I return. And I'm going to need the following supplies..."

A week later, Chrissy is dressed in black market military grade combat armor, but for men. She's wearing a binder, packer, has her hair back in a pony tail, and has baggy black cargo pants and a hoodie over the armor, as well as a mask with a voice disguiser to make her sound male. She has a black market pistol and rifle, military grade, and shock gauntlets under her gloves. She has tinted goggles over her eyes so that you can't see even an inch of her skin. Combat boots with steel toes fill out the outfit. She takes a beat up ship and jumps around several star systems at random, and then jumps to BarterWorld.


	6. Back to BarterWorld

Chrissy landed on BarterWorld at the capital city of BarterTown, in the main spaceport. Upon arrival a Customs agent approached. "Registration and ID's please." She handed a card. "How's 5000 Alliance Credits?" The Customs agent swiped the card and said, "Good day, sir!" Chrissy walked through BarterTown looking for the crappiest bar. Having walked for about 5 miles, she's pretty sure she found it. She walks in and sits at the bar. "I need a word with a local crime syndicate. 5000 Alliance credits if you can get me introductions" she whispers as she leans in so only the bartender can hear. "It's your funeral, but you want to go to Phillip's Diner on 3rd and Lavaca. The Crimean Syndicate is who you're looking for." She hands out her card, the bartender swipes it, and she's on her way. Half an hour later, she walks into Phillip's Diner and sits at a table. A waitress comes up. "Business or pleasure." She says, "Business." The waitress asks, "What should I call you?" Chrissy replies, "Someone with intel that could save their asses." She smiles. "Oh, you have information to sell. Right this way." She leads Chrissy to the back, and to an old freight elevator. At the bottom is a large lounge with lots of topless women dancing. "That's quite the view." She said. The waitress scoffs. She takes Chrissy to Butch, the Boss's right hand. "Butch, this man says he has vital information to sell." Butch says, "Is that right. Alright. What is it?" Chrissy replies, "Well if I just told you, you wouldn't pay me would you? Let me just say this. You should stay away from Anti-Corp. That's going to be your downfall."

The Boss Velazquez hears it. "What's this about Anti-Corp? Come here. What's your name?" "LaCroix." "You don't sound cajun." "Voice disguiser." "Yeah I thought so. So what's the asking price." Chrissy responds, "Well, considering without this info all of your assets could be seized by SciCorp, you would all be branded as traitors, and you'd be sent to work on their slave planets." Boss Velazquez sounds very worried. "How the fuck do you know about that?" Chrissy answers, "Intel is my business. So how much is this worth to you?" Boss Velazquez says, "Five hundred thousand Alliance Credits." Chrissy counter offers. "One million Alliance credits, or five hundred thousand Alliance Credits and you owe me a favor." Boss Velazquez smiles. "Tough negotiator. Five hundred thousand credits and a favor. Deal." He hands over the credits. "SciCorp operates under their Intelligence Arm, known as ShadowCorp. These people make SciCorp look like dullards. ShadowCorp has an agent on the Anti-Corp Council. It won't be long until he compromises their entire organization, and then he'll find out that you've been doing business with them." Boss Velazquez was noticeably upset. "Can you prove any of this?" Chrissy says, "If you have a man inside your competitor crime family's organization, yes. For $1 Million Alliance Credits, I'll not only prove it to you, but destroy their organization in the process." Boss Velazquez smiles. "Deal. What do I need to do?" Chrissy says, "He needs to get into their communications systems. He needs to open port 2345698 and create new admin credentials. As soon as he's done, he needs to disappear or return to your organization." Boss Velazquez makes a few phone calls. He's speaking a language Chrissy doesn't know. "Okay it's in progress. I'll let you know when it's done." She sits down and has some drinks, and a girl comes and sits on her lap. She gladly accepts the hospitality. Chrissy manages to convince the girl that she's not taking off her gear because she's disfigured, but she definitely enjoys her presence. Hours pass quickly and Boss Velazquez gets a call. "It's done. The credentials are joker and fuck you. Appropriate." Chrissy dismisses the lap dancer, and pulls back her sleeve to reveal a forearm mounted mini-computer. She starts typing furiously on it, and then presses enter.

"Now what?" asks Boss Velazquez. "Now we wait for The Alliance Military Corp to bomb them from orbit." Boss Velazquez exclaims, "What? This is a protected..." when a loud explosion rocks the club. Even in this subterranean lair, everything shakes. Everyone in the club rush up the freight elevator, and out the front door. They're looking at a mushroom cloud from a cluster bomb. As they get closer they can see the crater is about 5 stories deep. Boss Velazquez looks at Chrissy, "No more dealings with Anti-Corp. Understood loud and clear. Here's your payment." And he pays her a million Alliance credits. Chrissy issues a warning, "So don't mention my warning in any digital form. Word of mouth is fine if you want to warn your allies or sell information to others. You can tell them that the Khan Syndicate was about to put out a digital trade notification when they were attacked by ShadowCorp." Boss Velazquez nods. "Hope we get to do business with you again!" Chrissy then walks away.

Chrissy walks around looking for condemned buildings trying to spot a place to squat. She finds a 7 story building with an intact fire escape, so she climbs it and gets to about the 5th floor, and craws in through a window. She takes off her gear and gets into some ratty old clothing that barely fits, takes dust that accumulated in the building and rubs it on her body and clothes. She leaves her alliance credits card (which credits are actually stored on the card, not in the cloud), and leaves it there. She then crawls down the fire escape and looks for the nearest repair shop.

After walking two hours, she finds a repair shop, "Bartholomew Fixes Anything" that works on vehicles and space ships and she walks up to the desk. "Need an ace mechanic?" she asks. Bartholomew replies, "I can't pay you much. A credit a day and 10% of the fee for each successful repair." Chrissy smiles. "I can live with that. She gets to work. She plans on staying on BarterWorld a while, because ShadowCorp will definitely be looking for the source of the leak. They will definitely be stopping ships on the way out, as well as doing a ground search. She works for 12 hours a day, through lunch, and then finishes cleaning up. Bartholomew comes up to her. "Wow, you really are an ace mechanic. Here are your wages." He hands her 500 Alliance Credits. She smiles. "Yay, now I can get food". Bartholomew smiles. "You've earned it."

Chrissy walks to a market. She buys new clothes, but they're rugged blue collar work clothes. She buys some groceries, a backpack, and some other miscellaneous items. She gets back to her 5th floor "domicile", and begins to cook some food using a laser pistol. She eats and curls up and goes to sleep.

When she wakes up, she can see that Alliance Military Corp patrols are out in force. Luckily she prepared for this. She takes out a razor, scissors, and some shaving cream. She shaves the right side of her head, and then dyes the rest of her hair pink. She tucks 1000 credits in her bra. The takes a knife and whittles on a small palm size woden box, and uses copper wire, two nails, a press switch, and a 9v battery, and a large capacitor to make a home made taser. She wrapped it in duct tape to prevent accidental opening and to sort of waterproof it. She stuck it in her pocket of her work pants and climbed down the fire escape.

Her next stop was a tattoo parlor. She gets gear tattoos on the right side of her face going down her neck and right arm. She pays him when he's done and asks where she can "accessorize". He laughs and points her to a shop down the street. There she picks up some goth makeup, spiked collar, fingerless gloves, and some clothes to wear when she's not at work. She goes back towards her place when she's stopped by an Alliance Military soldier. "Papers please." She responds with as strong a local accent as she can muster, "I was freaking born here I ain't got no papers. Orphan kid. You're harassing me just because you like my tits, aren't ya?" The soldier just says, "on your way, citizen." And she walks off. She gets to Bartholomew's shop. 

When she gets there, there is a man who is in a state of panic. "You must know someone who can outrun this blockade..." Chrissy walks up. "Who are you. You look important." The man looks at the girl and ignores her. "I'm a Pilot." The man looks at her like she's being annoying. "Well that's all and good but can you break through the Alliance Military blockade?" She smiles. "Yeah, all we have to do is initiate hyperspace while in the hanger, calculate the curvature of hyperspace travel as a function of distance from the core of the planet due to gravity, and don't messup up because we could wind up inside a star." The man says, "you're not filling me with confidence." She gets closer to the guy, "I'm not suicidal, and I know the dangers of getting this wrong. I'm a *really* good pilot." He says, "very well, meet me in the hanger in an hour." She turns to her boss at the repair shop, "Well I guess I'm finally getting off this planet. If I come back, is my job still open?" Bartholomew said, "Always. Take care." And she ran off to her "loft" to grab her stuff, shove it in the backpack, and head to the space port.

When she got there, she saw the man standing near his ship, obviously very nervously. "We ready to go?" She smiled. "Yes." She boards the ship with him. She plots in a hyperspace course for the local sun, just inside the corona. As soon as they exit the jump, the hyperspace energies react with the coronal plasma and there's a huge explosion, but not before she engages a second jump to orbit range of an uninhabited planet. The man screamed, "What was that? Were you trying to kill us?" She smiled. "It was on purpose. The agents on BarterWorld saw this ship attempt to jump from inside the hanger and detonate inside the sun. We're quite alive." The man suddenly gets really nervous. "You're SciCorp, aren't you?" She shook her head. "Nope I was abandoned on BarterWorld by my parents. They were afraid SciCorp would take me. He smiled. "Well then girl, have I got an opportunity for you." He gave her coordinates, and they were off.

 


	7. Complications

Chrissy played this all out in her head in near instant real-time. This man was likely a General with the Anti-Corp. If she revealed she was Polaris, it could not only hamper her investigation, it could possibly out her as the ex-SciCorp agent with a price on her head. If she plays along like she's a new recruit, she has to find a way to let General Combs know what is going on. The more she thought about it the more she felt living a double life would offer no real benefit and would only hamper her efforts. So as they dropped out of hyperspace and entered orbit, Chrissy spoke up.

"Sir, I have a confession to make." The man gets noticeably nervous. "I know that you're probably a General with Anti-Corp." He looks really anxious and defensive now. "Relax. I'm Polaris." He laughed his ass off. "Holy fucking shit girl, I heard you were good, but god damned that was some fancy flying. I'm General Watts. What were you doing on BarterWorld?" She said calmly. "Investigating a troublesome rumor." His face looked grim. "What happened?" She takes a deep breath. "The Khan Syndicate claimed they had inside info on the Anti-Corp traitor." His face looked aghast. "They're rubble now. Who did they say was the traitor?" She replied, "I was on my way there when they were bombed from orbit by the Alliance Military." He takes a deep breath. "What were you doing working at that repair shop?" She smiled. "I knew agents were going to be scouring the planet looking for a leak. So I endeavored to look like a local. That included getting a job to bide the time until I found my opportunity to escape." He laughed. "Lucky for me you stuck around."

Chrissy gets a little serious. "I need you to not mention that I saved your bacon to your Councilor." General Watts looked puzzled. "Why?" She replied, "I estimate that there is a 7% chance that the traitor is on the Council. If he is, then he is very familiar with me and my work. He would immediately know that Polaris was the agent he was looking for." He looked concerned. "Then you took a risk even telling me that you were Polaris. I can see why joining my organization would complicate things for you." He looked at her a second. "You know who the traitor is, don't you?" She nods. "Anti-Corp is going to have a hard time getting equipment from BarterWorld. The rumor going around will make people not want to do business with AntiCorp. The traitor, if he is on the council, will offer to pull his resources to get new equipment for Anti-Corp. And every bit of equipment will be bugged and tracked. They will wipe out Anti-Corp all at once." He looks at her with not a little bit of panic in his eyes. "Here's my base's frequency. Drop me on the surface and tell them where to find me." She nods and does so, and then returns to Genacea.

Upon arrival Chrissy comms General Combs. "I need you to meet me at the place with the thing and the person." Combs comes on the line, "You okay?" Chrissy replies, "I'll explain there."

Back in the Communications Center in the derelict ship at the bottom of the ocean, Christy places a call to Councilor Mabry. "Councilor I'm afraid it's a bit of an emergency." Councilor Mabry said, "Be quick." Chrissy continued, "There's a nasty rumor circulating on BarterWorld, with some evidence of its truth. Khan Syndicate claimed to know who the traitor in Anti-Corp was and got bombed to oblivion. Now no one on BarterWorld wants to risk selling to Anti-Corp because of the specifics of the rumor. As a result, if the traitor is on the council, he will offer to use his resources to get new ships and equipment for Anti-Corp. They will be SciCorp issued with full audio and visual bugs, as well as tracking. They will decimate us in less than a month. Please make The Council doesn't fall for this." She replied, "How will I convince them by myself?" Chrissy answered, "I rescued one of our Generals on BarterWorld. He knows I'm Polaris. And he's informing his Councilor of the same. So you should have at least one ally." Councilor Mabry responded, "How do you know his Councilor isn't the spy?" Chrissy said, "The Councilor that's the spy won't have a General and Pilot Engineers. All of them would have been murdered a long time ago, and that base would have become a SciCorp installation." She nods. "That's a horrible thing to consider. Mabry out."

Chrissy and General Combs returns to base and calls a meeting at the Command Center. "General thank you for giving me free reign on this operation. I will now tell you what I was doing." She fills them in on all the details. When she finishes, she continues with some additional commentary. "The implications of how fast the Khan Syndicate were destroyed proves that ShadowCorp exists and ShadowCorp doesn't want anyone to know that they have an agent on The Council. The ShadowCorp agent is most likely Councilor Jenkins. When Councilor Jenkins "generously offers to pool his resources and outfit the Anti-Corp alliance", then, the real test begins. If The Council buys into Jenkins' bullshit, then I have to rescue two Councilors to safeguard our locations. The Anti-Corp Alliance will be all but destroyed. And we will likely need to move."

Chrissy thought a moment. "However, there is one thing we can do."


	8. Anti-Corp Council

It was an unnamed uninhabited ice planet. The average temperature outside was -30F. However, somehow, it had a molten core. Such was the perfect planet for an underground base for the Anti-Corp Council to reside. Deep underground, there thermoelectric energy could be harnessed for free, The Council had made a home. Freight elevators big enough to lift entire ships to the surface only saw use about once a week, in order to get supplies. A lot of work was done in order to keep this base as secret and secure as possible, including having the entire facility surrounded by faraday cages. In the Grand Council Chamber, an uncomfortable discussion was taking place.

Councilor Bryant is in the middle of talking, "these damned rumors, most of BarterWorld won't trade with us." Councilor Mabry interjected, "The content of the rumors is more troubling than the lack of trade." Councilor Jenkins replied, "Does anyone know the exact rumor being spread?" Councilor Velazquez said, "My man at the Crimean Syndicate says the Khan Syndicate was about to reveal that ShadowCorp, the Intel and Spy agency that runs SciCorp, and is even more wickedly smart, has an agent on this very council. Within minutes they were turned into a crater." Everyone was silent for a moment. Councilor Abrahms said, "That's consistent with my intel, though I didn't know about ShadowCorp." Councilor Mabry added, "Our General was abducted and held in BarterTown. My team of Engineer-Pilots rescued him. The SciCorp agent who they faced claimed he was from ShadowCorp before he was killed." Councilor Jenkins smiled. "The issue with the traitor is severe indeed. But if we just point fingers, our effectiveness will be nought. We should work towards strengthening our forces. I can pull my resources and get us new ships and equipment." Councilor Abrahms said, "Security, arrest Councilor Jenkins." Jenkins looks aghast. "On what charges." Councilor Mabry answers, "You are the traitor to the Council. Polaris told General Combs and General..." looking to Abrahms... who replies, "Watts". She continues, "Watts that you would say exactly, and I quote, "if there is a traitor on the Council he will offer to pull his resources and get us new ships and equipment to strengthen our forces... and they would be SciCorp ships. And they would have audio, video, and tracking bugs." Councilor Jenkins starts applauding. "Well done, Polaris. Well done indeed. You have indeed found me out. And now, your precious Anti-Corp Council dies." All of the security droids and servants descend on the Grand Council Chamber. They are all armed. "Exterminated by your own Security Droids and Servants! Yes, having no other humans know of our existence was a good idea. But I'm *way* better with Tech than any of you."

Back on Genacia, the entire team was in the Communications Center. Councilor Mabry followed Chrissy's instructions to a T. Chrissy remoted into Councilor Mabry's comm device, which was connected to their main computer control systems. Systems that she designed back in Ward 3. Breaking through their security was easy, and thus she was able to give herself privilege escalation on all of the robots. Suddenly, all of the robots turned their guns on Councilor Jenkins. Polaris appears as a hologram from the holoemitter on the Grand Council Chamber table. "Hello Councilor Jenkins. It's Polaris." Jenkins looks at her. "Christine Meier, Ward 7. You might have deleted SciCorp's databases, but you didn't even come close to deleting ShadowCorp's. I had such high hopes for you. But it doesn't matter. Your Grand Council dies anyway. I'm a cyborg powered by a continua gate. Say goodbye to your precious Anti-Corp." In her last seconds, Councilor Mabry sends the locations of all of AntiCorp's bases and comm frequencies, as well as access to their bank accounts, to Chrissy. "It's up to you now."

The ice planet explodes in a fireball so hot, all of the ice not only is converted to water, but the oxygen is consumed and they hydrogen burns, so that there is almost nothing left after the grand fireball.


	9. ShadowCorp

In the tallest spire towering over Capital City, lurked an organization that didn't officially exist. They were the most elite of all physicist-engineers. They were also the last line of defense for The Corporation. They did the jobs no one could do. They kept the secrets no one could keep. They had absolute authority and absolute autonomy. Forget Section 31, the Tal Shiar, or the Obsidian Order. The members of ShadowCorp, they were on a level all on their own. It was their initiative to measure the SCIKER level of each child on Earth. It was their initiative to send anyone with an untrained SCIKER level above 5 to work as a slave on the Alliance Worlds. It was their initiative to shape and sculpt SciCorp to ensure maximum loyalty and obedience. They tested dangerous chemicals on slave children. Armed with that data, SciCorp was able to make a new line of perfumes. They did all the dirty work, allowing SciCorp to bring in bright, idealistic people... and turn them. And twist them. And recruit them.

And yet SciCorp failed them. Somehow, Christine Meier happened. Her mastery of physics and engineering was staggering to behold. Yet somehow she managed to pass all of the requisite loyalty tests... until the anomaly. She was promoted from Ward 5 to Ward 7 in almost no time. No that wasn't it. Abraxis reviewed her work. And that got her attention. Somehow, she managed to find out what Abraxis did with her Tech. Abraxis was sloppy. So Abraxis set a trap for her. And he lost his head. Well, more accurately speaking, he lost his body. She correctly outed Agent Samael, and he self-destructed. That will buy us some time. But Agent Samael is a big loss for the organization. The meeting of ShadowCorp was about to begin.

Abraxis, who was now just a brain inside of a robot body, started off the meeting. "News of our existence has come to light, and in a big way. The Khan Syndicate bombed from orbit, the Anti-Corp High Council blown to smithereens, and all hope of resistance is now in question. "Polaris" has cut us out of her organization at the expense of her organization. I'd say that was worth something."

Brennan continued, "Well it was your fault Polaris even exists. If you were going to snoop in her files, you should have at least properly classified your field reports. That is sloppy beyond sloppy. But she was never going to be made one of ours. The only way we could have kept her was to put a lot more effort into convincing her that we were the good guys."

Raymond responds, "Brennan, did you forget something? You found out something about young Christine and had her family murdered. They were dead set against having her in SciCorp. We had no real leverage against her. If her family had lived, we could have framed an Anti-Corp person for their murder. Not just some common street thug."

Brennan sighs. "I never found proof. And her family died before they would tell me. But I suspected that Christine had been coached in hiding her intelligence. That she intentionally lowered her score on the SCIKER test."

Greer replies astonished, "At three years old? Really? What makes you think that?"

Brennan says plainly, "Her teeth were stained red. Her foot was tapping on its own. And when I played back the audio, I couldn't quite make it out. But it reminded me of something. During the entire test she was, under her breath, reciting all the digits of PI. For a three hour test. I was pretty sure it was my imagination. She was only three years old. I thought I was being paranoid. But I confronted her parents about it. I was excited. I wanted to see what we could do with such a smart kid. So I violated protocol. I had her family murdered, and took her into SciCorp."

Jeffreys piped up. "Raymond, you're partially at fault to. You gave Ward 7 personnel the authority to promote at will. That's where this truly went wrong. We just didn't have enough time to shape her. Then Abraxis got sloppy, and we had no leverage."

Greer chimes in again, "Jeffreys, who gave permission for Ward 5 and above to have unrestricted access to the Hanger?"

Abraxis counters, "Oh come on Greer, it was your job to look for abberant behavior. We found video logs of "Polaris" locking herself in her closet with all her blankets and pillows and crying herself to sleep after reading Abraxis' document. Of course that was only well after she left. Weren't you in charge of monitoring the SciCorp Agents?

Brennan clears her throat. "We all fucked up. And I think I know why. We felt like Christine was the only one at SciCorp that was on our level. We lost our detachment, and became invested in her, and not ShadowCorp. And that's what makes her really dangerous. There is no redeeming her. We need to kill Polaris."


	10. Anti-Corp Reborn

Chrissy (Polaris) used the comms to talk with all of the remaining members of AntiCorp. She had a daring plan to rebuild their organization, but she needed time. The Generals agreed to continue operations independently. Chrissy also knew that one of the Generals was a ShadowCorp Agent, and she needed a way to vet them independently. But first she needed to do some upgrades. She went back to Genacia, picked up a ratted old ship she repaired, and went to BarterWorld. In BarterTown, she went to the 5th story of that dilapidated building and retrieved her money as well as the outfit she used when selling info to the Crimean Syndicate. She walked to the same restaurant where she find the Syndacate last time, and just walked into the back and took the freight elevator.

"Good to see you again, my mysterious friend. You have made me unthinkably rich. I now control the entire crime Syndicate on Barterworld!" The man said, "I assume you heard about your brother." He looked shocked. "What do you know about my brother." Chrissy replied, "He was on a certain ice planet that was recently destroyed. You were still supplying him, weren't you?" Boss Velazquez mood turned sour. "Your bravado got him killed." Chrissy responded, "There was a ShadowCorp agent on the Council. He was a dead man anyway. At least that ShadowCorp agent is dead." Velazquez nodded. "I told him he was going to get himself killed." Boss Velazquez thought for a moment... "Wait... You're Polaris aren't you?" Chrissy smiled. "Busted." She took off the helmet, managed to take off her binder without taking her hoodie or armor off. Boss Velazquez exclaimed, "Holy hell, Polaris is a chick? Weren't you the girl my guys saw working at the repair shop, that flew a ship into the sun? You're dead."

Chrissy responded, "That was me, loosing a tail. I'm a really good pilot." Boss Velazques said, "I guess so." What can I help you with, Polaris? Chrissy smiled. She hands the boss a list of parts. "I need all of these parts. I'm willing to pay handsomely for them." Boss Velazquez said, "I don't know what half of this means, but I got people." He sends someone off. He then thinks back... "So that girl that was on your lap... you were really into her, weren't you..." She smiled. "Yeah, I don't know if she'd be as into me now." He laughed. The woman in question sees the familiar outfit and sees a woman's head sticking out of it. "Well that's unexpected." She comes over and they talk. Eventually the woman says, "Come with me..." and the two disappear into a back room for several hours.

When they come back, Chrissy is wearing regular clothes, but her weapons are still on her. Boss Velazquez asks, "Where's Jennifer?" Chrissy smiles. "I think I broke her. She's not used to real orgasms." He laughed. "Well while you were getting busy, I got all of your materials. It's gonna cost 5 million Alliance Credits." Chrissy said, "That's a 10000% markup of their street value, but what I'm going to make with them is worth significantly more than that." She pays the price. Boss Velazques says, "Pleasure doing business with you." She then starts assembling it with tools she brought. When she's done, she has a box about the size of a window air condition unit. "Want to guess what this is?" Boss Velazquez says, not really. She replies. "It's a cloaking device for a ship." Boss Velazquez's eyes widen. "Any time you need cargo hauled discreetly, I'm available for a price." Boss Velazquez laughs. "This is a very pleasant development indeed. Here's my direct frequency." Chrissy gives him hers. "Well now, time to test it out. I have one last traitor to find." Boss Velazquez says, "Take care and good luck. Give them hell for me." She replies, "I will" and leaves.

She goes to the hanger and returns to Genacia, and installs the cloaking device on her ship. She reports into General Combs. "I now have a cloaking device on my ship. I'm going to individually vet each of the other Generals. I know at least one of them works for ShadowCorp. I'll be back." General Combs says, alright, keep me up to speed. Chrissy nods.

One at a time, she radios one of the Generals, and asks them to meet her at an uninhabited star system to talk. First she called up General Watts. He was there in a couple of hours. "General to Polaris. What's up?" Chrissy responds, "I'm just vetting everyone before I go forward with my plan to rebuild the rebellion. If the Alliance Army doesn't show up to blast me out of the sky, then you're in the clear." General Watts replied, "Well what if they do show up to blast you into the sky?" Chrissy laughs. "I have new toys. I'll tell you later. Once we have a new base." Watts asks, "New base, huh? How are you going to pull that one off?" Chrissy answers, "Brilliantly." Watts laughs. "Okay, I've got work to do. See you later." Chrissy smiles and salutes. "Later."

She similarly vets Nakamura and Myers, not really expecting any issues with them. But then, she radios Hankins, who she is sure is a ShadowCorp agent.

Meanwhile, at the ShadowCorp Council, they get a call. "This is "General Hankins"". Abraxis answers. "Yes Agent Miller, what do you have for me?" "Polaris wants to meet me at these coordinates." He laughs. "Destroy her. Call the Military Fleet in. I'll be there shortly." Agent Miller answers, "Yes, sir."

Chrissy is sitting in her ship when she sees "General Hankins", the Alliance Military Fleet with 10 Dreadnoughts 5 Destroyers, and hundreds of thousands of fighters leaving their bays. And then Abraxis' ship arrives, Abraxis comes on comms. "Polaris, it's Abraxis. It's time to return the favor." Chrissy comms back, "Oh and you think because you have all these ships, you're somehow... ahead of me..." Abraxis yells back, "Die."

Before Chrissy can go to hyperwarp, she is hit with a tractor beam. The Dreadnoughts and Destroyers all start firing their heavy particle beam cannons at her. She then his their tractor beam emitter with a tractor beam itself, turning it into a repulsor beam, and pilots at high speed behind the planet and does a false hyperspace jump, and then cloaks. She then gets in position and launches a tracker, and puts it on "General Hankins" ship. She then follows it back to his base. The base is on the surface of the planet, and it is heavily fortified. However, she sees that the base is powered by a continua gate, and it's not that well guarded. She configures one of her electron concussion charges into a shape cutting charge, and launches it at the continua gate from cloak. She immediately hyperspaces back to Genacia.

When she gets to the Command Center, she files her report. "Alright. The ShadowCorp base is destroyed. There are no more leaks. I can now fill you in on my plan. I plan on making our base on BarterWorld." General Combs says, "What? There's too much attention. SciCorp can go there at will. It's a death trap." She answers, "I have cloaking technology for our ships. I have the Crimean Syndicate as a supplier. All I have to do is build the base without anyone knowing, and build supply line routes to the Crimean Syndicate. It will double as an escape route for them in case it's needed." General Combs says, "Okay, let's try it."

Chrissy needs to make two inventions before she continues. She builds a plasma bulldozer, which uses plasma hot enough to turn granite to vapor, and outfits it on her ship as a forward mounted device just under the nose, and a weather control machine that she puts in a detachable pod on the ship. Once she's done with that, she flies under cloak to BarterWorld.

She then enters the ocean and goes to the bottom. She uses the plasma bulldozer to burn a hole in the ocean bed until it's still solid rock, but the rock is close enough to magma to make the rock really hot. Using her force field to hold a pocket of air around her, she leaves the ship. Getting supplies from her cargo hold, she caps the hole with molybdenum steel plates, and then builds a thermo-electric and insulation to generate electricity using the temperature difference between the molybdenum steel plates and the water of the ocean floor. She then installs her weather machine and creates a 100 mile radius of cloud and fog that limits all visibility going up into the stratosphere.

Once she does that, she scours the ocean using her scanners to try to locate a large cave. She maps nearly the entire ocean before finally finding an under ocean cave of the appropriate depth and size. She flies in and finds something living in there. Her plasma bulldozer takes care of it. She set the spread very large, so that the largest ship pilot-able by a crew of 5 or less could fit through. She dug out the cave a little farther, then burned an "plumber's S Trap" big enough for their biggest freighters to get through. Once she finishes she started burning straight down. She went quite a bit deeper from there. She then burned out a large cavern with 80' ceilings. She cut out an area of 339 square miles, with large columns 50 yards in diameter. With the way that the plasma vaporizes the material, it creates a super hardened crust that's fused with material and super hardened. The columns are spaced according to her mathematical model to have the base withstand an earthquake of magnitude 6. She then creates a ventilation shaft only as big around as her fighter, that also goes up. She created another "plumber's S Trap" just big enough for her fighter before coming up in the ocean. The heat and exhaust of the red hot "cave system" blew out the trap and sent bubbles to the surface. The resulting low pressure pulled in some water which immediately evaporated and aided in the cooling, as well as the air pressure, which blew through the traps. Chrissy would go back to Genacia and come back a week later to see what she had to work with.

Once she was satisfied with what she had, she went back to Barterworld and had a talk with Boss Velazquez. Boss Velazquez said, "Polaris, how can I help you today?" Chrissy says, "Can we talk in private?" Boss Velazquez nods and they go into his office. "What's up?" She answers, "I need you to build a spaceport at your largest warehouse." Boss Velazquez says, "I would love too, but I don't have that kind of liquid cash at the moment." She replies, "I can get you 300 million in Alliance Credits, but I'm going to need 10% on all spaceport transactions, and everything you requisition from us you'll give us 20% off. I'll throw in a theft deterrent system that if someone presses the alarm for someone trying to rob your warehouse from the space port, a force field goes over the space port and autocannons are locked onto all docked ships. Boss Velazquez smiles broadly. "You got yourself a deal." Chrissy says, "But one more thing. I need a separate hanger for a freighter that is reserved for my use, that's not visible from the main hangar. I have cloaking technology, and I don't want to be caught having cloaking technology." Boss Velazquez says, "I don't want people knowing you have cloaking technology either or SciCorp could suspect me. We'll get it set up to your specifications."

Chrissy returns to Genacia and returns to Barterworld three months later to install the theft deterrent system. Once that's done, she radios all of the generals and tells them to strip everything they can out of their bases and haul it to BarterWorld. She tells them to come out of hyperspace inside the atmosphere within the 100 mile radius of cloudly/foggy zero visibility weather, and then gives the coordinate sets necessary to get into the base safely. Once inside she orders that no ship leave unless it has cloaking technology. Chrissy flies to Boss Velazquez' warehouse to pick up components to outfit the ships with cloaking technology, and then get busy retrofitting each of the ships, so they can continue to bring things from the old bases here.

Six months later, the new base is finally operational. Chrissy has created Command Centers for each team, as well as a Grand Command Center for all of the Generals. The Generals all gather together and discuss the future of the alliance. However, they ask Chrissy to join them. General Combs speaks first. "General Nakamura, General Watts, General Myers, may I introduce Commander Christine "Chrissy" Meier, aka Polaris. Formerly SciCorp Ward 7 Agent." General mutterings of astonishment. General Watts speaks next. "Polaris, this rebellion would be dead were it not for you. You've culled the spies within. At a terrible cost. But the moment we threw in with the rebellion, we knew it could mean our deaths. We know our enemy better than ever, and we have a fighting chance now. But now we must focus on what kind of organization to have. And we'd like to promote you to General."

"I would accept the title of Field General. I have too much to do to stay here and sit at a boardroom. I think each General should focus on a specific task necessary for the survival of the resistance. As Field General and Head of Special Ops, I will recruit, train, and command all Special Ops teams. There should be a General of Resource Acquisition and a dedicated staff for that. Barterworld is a great place for that. My ties with the Crimean Syndicate will likely help, and I'll make introductions as necessary. There should be a General of Alliance Wealth Redistribution, who steals from Alliance convoys and directly delivers it to people of the Alliance Worlds. There should be a General in charge of Security. And lastly there should be a General of Facilities, that's responsible for facilities maintenance, food service, repair, maintenance of ships, fueling, and everything necessary to making a base run and be self sufficient."

The Generals discuss the idea and come to a consensus. General Nakamura spoke. "I also have a relationship with the good Boss of the Crimean Syndicate. Helped him out of a pickle. I'll take charge of Resource Acquisition." General Watts chimes up. "I'm former Alliance Military and was a General with them. I'll take the Wealth Redistribution tasks." General Myers replies, "I'll take the task of Security." General Mabry said, "I'll take Facilities, but I think this should also be inclusive of being in charge of the base itself, in charge of basic training, discipline, duty rosters, any issue with court marshalling, and everything implied in running a base. So it should be Base Operations, instead of Facilities."

Field Commander Polaris says, "I motion to accept the terms posited by myself with modifications made by General Nakamura, General Watts, General Myers, and General Mabry." Nakamura seconds, and they vote unanimously. General Mabry then says, "We need a new name for our organization." General Watts says, "The way that Polaris has ShadowCorp on the run, maybe we should just call the entire group Polaris. Brand all the ships Polaris. Make it seem as if everyone is Polaris."  General Mabry laughs. "Yeah we can't all be named Polaris. But as an organization name, that might work. Commander Polaris speaks up. "Since they have complete control of the media, maybe we can use a little bit of trickery. Those who are not up on their history will think nothing of it, but those who are will consider the name seriously. I suggest we take the name "Black Sam Pirates and the generals only go by names, not titles. So Watts would be Black Sam, as he's in charge of the Wealth Redistribution."

Everyone is excited by the idea. "Black Sam Pirates" becomes the organization's new name. Chrissy says, "I'll keep the name Polaris because it's known and marketable." General Watts says, "I'm now Black Sam."  Mabry states, "I am now "The General" since she's in charge of the base." General Nakamura says, "I'll be The Fox. There was a legendary Kitsune named Tomamo no Mae who was a legendary Nine Tailed Fox who consorted with Emperors and people in power. But no one will recognize the name, so I'll just be "The Fox". General Myers responds, "I'll be The Hellhound."

Chrissy speaks, "Motion to accept the code names as the official titles for that office. If someone is replaced, they will keep the same code-name." Fox seconds the motion. The General thirds it. It goes to a vote, and the vote is unanimous.

 


	11. Making a Special Ops Team

The Special Ops training was going slowly. Polaris was trying to get the trainees up to a Ward 7 level of Engineering and Physics, but many weren't up to the task. So instead of trying to teach them textbook style, she gave them an assignment. "Break into teams of three. I'm going to try to kill all of you. Not for real, but act like I really am. You have a month to come up with defenses and offenses to use against me in close quarters combat." It wasn't so much that she expected anyone to be on her par, especially at this early on, but she wanted to drive home that the point of a Ward 7 Agent was to master science and engineering to the point where they could solve almost any problem.

There were a total of ten teams. Polaris only used her electron blade, but only the flat end, as well as an electron/emf shield. The bottom five she knocked out very easily. The next 4 teams were really innovative, but they completely misjudged what technologies and techniques Chrissy would use, and thus weren't as effective as they could have been, and were knocked out in less than five minutes with a little effort. The last team managed to knock Chrissy on her ass. She managed to destroy their weapon and engage in hand to hand, subduing them all, but they were the most effective.

"Team 6 is the only team that accurately assessed what tactics I would use. They took the time to research my history. They very smartly created an antigravity pulse cannon. They however, didn't shield it properly. Thus it was vulnerable to attack. None of you stand a chance against me. This isn't about you being able to fight me on an even level. It's about getting better at reading and researching your enemy, and leveraging advanced physics and engineering to solve problems." From there on she calculated how much each person contributed to each project based on the notes she required. Then she put the very highest scored with the lowest scored, and gave them a month to try again. The hardest part for many of them was looking for "the right answer" instead of "the most effective answer".

After nine months of lessons and challenges like these, Polaris comes to a conclusion. What really makes a Ward 7 person is their ability to think ahead at a tremendous level. Their SCIKER rating. She needed to know how to determine someone's SCIKER rating. So she took her cloaked ship and went to Earth. Using her computer skills, she managed to hack into the Alliance computers, surveillance feed, and actively record hundreds of children receiving the test concurrently. And then it clicks to her. She figures out the easiest way to tell if someone is a High SCIKER.

First she interviews everyone on her base. She has them take some sodium pentothal. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a truth serum. It makes you drunk, and it makes you want to talk. Then she asks the person, "What is pi?" For those who were low SCIKER, they would just talk about anything, completely not related to the question at hand. But to those who where high SCIKER, they would recite pi. If they were SCIKER 4, they would recite pi to 100 places. If they were SCIKER 5, they would recite pi to 1000 places. If they were SCIKER 6, they would recite pi to 10,000,000 places. If they were SCIKER 7 or above, they would only stop when you told them to stop. Even if it was days later.

Using this technique she was able to identify two SCIKER 5's and a SCIKER 6. She would then search BarterWorld for months at a time for people who were unusally good at things, and give them the test. She came back with 4 SCKIER 5's, three SCIKER 6's, and 2 SCIKER 7's. She gave them all the education of a WARD 7 Agent, and sent the SCIKER 4's and 5's to work under Hellhound. She took the four SCIKER 6's and 2 SCIKER 7's and started their formal Special Ops Training. She gave them a full debrief on The Alliance Military, SciCorp, and ShadowCorp. She told them everything she learned during her time there, all of her encounters, everything. Once they knew what they were up against, she had each of them custom design their own ships.   
Once they were finished she had them work under Black Sam for the time being. She didn't have any special ops that needed to be done immediately. But they would all need to be on call. While they were working with Black Sam, she worked on R&D for "oh shit" situations.


	12. Amber Oh Amber

About three months after the Special Ops Recruits were tasked with helping Black Sam "redistribute" some of the wealth and technology to alliance members, one of the members came to talk to Polaris. "Um Polaris?" Chrissy responded, "When we're not on mission, and we're in the base, feel free to call me Chrissy." She smiled. "Chrissy, I have a question for you...." asked Amber. "Sure thing Amber, what is it?" replied Chrissy. "Well," she continued, "how would you tell if someone was significantly higher than SCIKER level 7?" Chrissy thought about it for a moment. "Well I guess by how long they can recite more than one transcendental number. Like saying digits of pi and writing digits of e. Amber got excited "Oh let's do that!" and then thought a second. "Do we need the sodium pentothal?" Chrissy smiled. "No, the sodium pentothal was to get people to talk who normally wouldn't be so forthcoming of their intelligence." Amber smiled. "But I'm willing so I can just try it, right?" Chrissy says "sure.".

Amber sits down with a pen and paper and proceeds to speak out the digits of pi and write the digits of e on paper. Chrissy was trying to focus, but she was having difficulty. Amber had lovely blonde hair, fair skin, a really nice bum, and was curvy all around. She smelled soooo good. She just wanted to strip down, strip her down, and cuddle naked in some blankets for hours... before she knew it, she was dreaming up scenarios they might find themselves in the future... sexy, sexy futures. Before she realized it, Amber cried out in frustration. "Four hours was my limit." Chrissy was still half in her sexy sexy daydream going "I could go for a lot more than four hours..." Amber then said "Prove it." And still in a daze, Chrissy caressed Amber's face and moved in to kiss her.

Amber slapped her awake and laughed her ass off. "What kind of dream were you having there anyway..." Chrissy was really embarrassed. "A very sexy, sexy dream..." Amber then replied, "oh who with?" Chrissy turned beet red. She said in the tiniest voice ever. "you." Now it was Amber's turn to turn beet red. "Well, now I want to test you..." Chrissy nodded. "Mind if I up the stakes?" She nodded. "I want to up the stakes. Come with me." Amber leads Chrissy to her bunk. She moved her desk around so Chrissy could look at her while she worked. "Go ahead and start." Chrissy starts reciting pi, writing e with her right hand, and writing the Komornik-Loreti constant with her left hand. Amber said, "You're doing three trancendental numbers at once?" Chrissy said "Hush" and continued reciting pi.

Amber watched for about twenty minutes in amazement, when she decided to put her devious plan in action. Amber took her shirt off, and then her bra. Chrissy's eyes went wide. Chrissy still was speaking the digits of pi, writing the digits of e and the Komornik-Loreti constant without missing a beat. Amber started playing with her tits, and Chrissy started to wimper... again not loosing any speed on her self-imposed SCIKER test. Amber plays with her tits for a minute or two, and then she goes up behind Chrissy and sets her tits on Chrissy's shoulder, rubbing her tits into the side of Chrissy while she continued the test. Chrissy starts to kind of cry while enduring this "torture". Amber rubs her tits on the side of Chrissy's face for what seems like an eternity before finally backing off. Chrissy's speed of reciting pi and writing e and the Komornik-Loreti constant didn't waver in the least. Then Amber got in front of Chrissy again, and pulled off the rest of her clothing, as she started fingering her moist vagina. Christine was breathing really heavily, but still reciting pi and writing e and the Komornik-Loreti constant. Amber stops and thinks for a moment. And then she gets an evil, evil grin on her face. She starts to pull Chrissy's pants off, as well as her underwear, and starts licking her clit, lightly at first. Chrissy screams, "Do you want me to finish this test or do you want to fuck?" And then resumes the digit of pi she was on, as well as writing e and the Komornik-Loreti constant. Amber replies, "Finish the test... under duress..." Chrissy is enraptured in waves of orgasm as Amber sucks firmly and tongue her clit while stroking the top inside of her vaginal wall with three fingers, reaching up to pull Chrissy's top of so she can molest her tits with her free hand. Amber "tortures" Chrissy for hours and her recital of pi and writing of e and the Komornik-Loreti constant are still going strong when Amber slips her whole hand in and starts fist fucking Chrissy... Chrissy screams squirting all over Amber.... and the screams don't stop for four hours... at which point Chrissy is still reciting pi and writing e and the Komornik-Loreti number... when Amber falls back exhausted.... and Chrissy keeps going... Amber says, "you can stop Chrissy... my god you can stop..."

Chrissy gets up, goes to the restroom, picks Amber up, ties her to her own bed, and says, "My turn."

 

 


	13. It's all downhill from here....

The next morning, Amber is up early. Sore, but up and walking. She asks each of the "Generals" to meet with her while Chrissy is asleep. They gather in the Grand Command Center. "Chrissy developed a way to test a person's SCIKER level beyond seven." Everyone looks kind of shocked. "Well what did she find?" Amber answered, "She didn't find anything because we had an intense night last night. But based on the data she gathered from Earth on their implementation of the SCIKER tests, and the tests she used for people up to SCIKER 7, I would be at least a SCIKER 9." They looked shocked. "And what about Chrissy?" Amber looked at them. "I honestly don't know. At least 15, maybe 20? I stopped her from continuing the test because she was scaring me." The General asked, "what do you mean, scaring you?" She admitted, "I tested her under very harsh conditions. She was verbally reciting pi, and writing values for e simultaneously. I could only do that for four hours. But in addition she was writing digits for the Komornik-Loreti constant at the same time. Reciting three transcendental numbers simultaneously." The Fox said, "oh fuck." Amber continued, "that's not the half of it. Then I started to striptease... and it escalated... I gave her four hours of orgasms and she didn't even slow down on reciting pi or writing e or the Komornik-Loreti constant. When I was exhausted and finished, she just continued... until I asked her to stop."

"What does this mean?" Amber said, "Her ability to process information is so great, it's pretty much identical to pre-cognition. I think the SCIKER tests were named that way because their abilities are almost indistinguishable from psychic powers. I have no idea how far in the past she envisioned all of you in this room." Black Sam said, "We lost a lot of good people, but with the infiltrators we had in our organization, we could have lost everyone." Amber nods. Amber continues, "I'd like The Council to make Polaris in charge of Special Ops, and put me in charge of Research and Development." The Hellhound says, "We'll consult with Polaris. In the mean time, what name do you want to be called by?" She answers, "Athena".

Later in the day Polaris wakes up and meets with the Council. After a long meeting, she asked Amber to come in. "Athena, take your place on the Council," said Polaris. "It will do me a lot of good to not have to do double duty, and to have someone as capable as you in the role." Amber hugs Polaris. Amber begins the council meeting. "Polaris, will you tell the Council the results of the last two SCIKER tests you did?" Chrissy sighs. "Do I have to tell them?" The General replies, why don't you want to tell us?" Chrissy answers, "because I don't want to be right." Amber says, "If we know for sure, we can plan around it. If we avoid the truth, we will be powerless before it." Chrissy relents. "Athena clocks in on the SCIKER scale at a 9.7." Amber then pries, "and you?" Chrissy reluctantly says, "25. I was hoping to god that I was paranoid. I took medicine for paranoia, anxiety, and depression. And it turns out, I'm not paranoid, and I don't have anxiety and depression for no reason. I have them because I'm right. ShadowCorp is going to destroy BarterWorld with everyone on it, using a huge planet destroying ray."

The Hellhound was the first to speak, "What do we do?" Chrissy answers, "I don't know. I get captured. I don't escape in time to stop it. I can only delay the inevitable." Amber chimes up. "Don't worry Polaris, I can think of something." Chrissy is on the verge of tears. "No you don't. I get captured trying to rescue you..." 

The room was silent for a moment. The General said, "You have another SCIKER 7. Test them. Maybe together, you can come up with something." Chrissy looks out of the Grand Command Center window and sees a 10 year old girl with a robot following her. "Excuse me." You look from the Grand Command Center as Chrissy talks to the girl, and then gets excited. She explains some things and then has her talking and writing things down. With both hands. Chrissy has her stop and she walks the little girl to the Grand Command Center.

"I found our secret weapon. Meet Jessica. Code named Solaris. She's a SCIKER level 18. Solaris, you're going to work with Athena and the other high level SCIKERS on a problem we have." Jessica says, "Okay!"


	14. On the Trail

Back at ShadowCorp, they held an emergency meeting. Abraxis speaks first. "I underestimated how expensive loosing our insiders would be. Yes, we got rid of the Council, but it doesn't seem to have phased them. They've even rebranded as "The Black Sam Pirates", trying to give a legitimacy to their cause by appealing to a "Robin Hood" style image. And while we control the media on Earth, they're getting a lot of support from the Alliance Worlds and BarterWorld. We're loosing billions in shipments, and our workers are fighting back. They're being increasingly supplied with military technology by the Black Sam Pirates. And you can bet Polaris is behind this." Agent Raymond responded, "I think we need to stop thinking of Polaris as a SciCorp agent. Even though she never had our training, I think we need to start thinking of her as a rogue ShadowCorp agent." Agent Greer replied, "Agreed. And if she was a rogue ShadowCorp agent, I know where she would make her base. She'd make it on BarterWorld."

"Someone should go to BarterWorld and check it out." said Brennan. "I'll go", said Abraxis. "I'll keep an encrypted channel open." Abraxis departs for BarterWorld. Abraxis said "It occurs to me that if the Black Sam Pirates made their base on BarterWorld, they have a supplier on planet for goods. We assumed they were working with the Khan Syndicate because only Polaris could have figured out that we existed, and that we had a person on the Council. But what if she was never involved with the Khan Syndicate?" "What do you mean?" asked Greer. Abraxis continued, "What if she was trying to sabre rattle the Anti-Corp Council by cutting off their supply of goods from BarterWorld, and see who would offer up miraculously obtained equipment... someone like Samael. And to prove it, she needed to thrust us into action. So she arranged to hack the Khan Syndicate and send the message, and got them bombed into oblivion, so she could prove who the ShadowCorp agent was? Or possibly she already knew, but she needed more evidence." Brennan continued, "But if she had us bomb the Khan Syndicate, then would that mean she has ties to the Crimean Syndicate? After the Khan Syndicate bit it, the Crimean Syndicate took over all of BarterWorld." Abraxis replied, "That seems very likely." When Abraxis left the spaceport ten Alliance Military soldiers followed him. When he walked down the street, people immediately left and returned to their home. He walked into the nearest bar, and his soldiers followed him. "Where is the Boss of the Crimean Syndicate." The bartender chimed up. "Phillip's Diner on 3rd and Lavaca." He left and headed own the road.

When he got to the Diner, the girl behind the counter pressed a button. Downstairs it set off an alarm that told them, "prepare to be inspected". Boss Velazquez's men hurriedly hid all of the contraband and illegal goods as quickly as possible. "In the back. Take the freight elevator down." She said to him. "Good girl." said Abraxis, as he led his men downstairs. Boss Velazquez's right hand man said, "Boss Velazquez is this way... and you are?" Abraxis smiled. "I am Agent Abraxis of ShadowCorp". You could hear in the background "fuck". The man brought Abraxis before Boss Velazques. "So, you're Abraxis. With ShadowCorp. How can I help you?" Abraxis began, "I want Polaris and the Black Sam Pirates." Boss Velazquez replied, "Who?" Abraxis continued, "The person who colluded with you to hack into the Khan Syndicate and send out a very naughty message that forced us to bomb them into oblivion." Boss Velazquez replied, "I don't know about Polaris, but a man dressed in black with a mask and a voice disguiser was the one who helped me with that." Abraxis thought. "A voice disguiser. Maybe it was a woman who wanted you to think it was a man." Boss Velazquez said, "I don't know, but sometimes he does shipment runs for me. I summon him for you." Abraxis smiled. "That would be excellent." Boss Velazquez sent a message to Chrissy, "Mystery man wants to meet the man in black. Hurry up, he's at my place." Boss Velazquez said, "He should be on his way. Give him a moment, he's coming from offworld."  
  
Back at Black Sam Pirates headquarders, Chrissy gets Boss Velazquez's message. She gathers the Council and discusses it. Fox asks, "What exactly did the message say?" Chrissy responds, "Mystery man wants to meet the man in black. Hurry up, he's at my place." Fox says, "This isn't good. Mystery Man means The Alliance. Probably ShadowCorp. What's this "man in black"?" Chrissy explains, "When I did the op to flush out the infiltrator, I dressed up as a man, with a binder, body armor, hoodie, cargo pants, as mask, and a voice changer." Fox says, "Do you still have that?" Chrissy nods. Fox replies, "Let me go in your stead. He won't have any idea who I am." Chrissy warns, "he's dangerous." Fox says, "I'll be careful."

An hour later the man in black shows up at the Diner, and is ushered to the back. "Can I help you" Fox says. Velazquez says, "This is him." Abraxis takes a look. "Take your mask off." Fox says, "I'd rather not." He reaches over and removes the mask by force. Velazquez looks confused. "Nakamura, you're the man in black?" Abraxis says, "You know this woman?" Boss Velazquez says, "Yeah she's my favorite smuggler. We go way, way back. Don't think I'd be Boss of the Crimean Syndicate without her." Abraxis grabbed Fox and held her against a wall. "How did you find out about us?" Fox answered, "Councilman Jenkins wasn't as discreet as he thought. I did some runs for him from Bartertown. He got on a comm and called himself Samael. So I looked up the name.  Doesn't exist. Well, except in papers published by SciCorp. I put 2 and 2 together." Abraxis questioned her further. "Why would you send a message like that?" She smiled. "So Boss Velazquez would owe me." Abraxis sighed. "Your story checks out for now." He drops her and walks out, and returns to Earth. Boss Velazquez asked Fox, "How the hell did you know the guy's name was Samael?" She smiled. "Abraxis is an ancient earth Gnostic demon. I guessed that all of the males would have names based on ancient earth Gnostic demons, and the most famous one was Samael. It was just a really lucky guess."

Back at ShadowCorp, Abraxis arrives. "Well, what did you find out?" asked Brennan. "The hack was perpetrated by a "man in black". That man turned out to be a woman. However, that woman was not Polaris. She was a smuggler, and Samael got careless. She did smuggling runs for him to keep himself in luxury goods." Greer shouts, "Damn it, we're no closer to finding Polaris." Abraxis said, "This doesn't mean that Polaris isn't on Barterworld, it just means that Polaris is keeping a low profile there." Abraxis thought for a second. "There was this strange atmospheric disturbance that wasn't there last time. Like a column of cloud and fog... coming in it looked like it was 100 miles wide." Greer stated, "Well it could be natural phenomenon, but if it isn't, it could prove that their base is on BarterWorld." Abraxis nods and heads back to the spaceport.

Abraxis arrives again at BarterWorld, but this time, he lands next to the column of clouds and mist. He flies down and into the ocean, and finds the source. There's a weather machine hooked up to geothermal electric generators. He destroys the machine, and the weather phenomenon instantly dissipates. He comes up out of the ocean. He then calls ShadowCorp headquarters. "It was a weather machine, powered by geothermals. They are definitely on this planet. Based on the configuration, it looks like they would jump into the system within that column, and then fly down into the ocean, and their base is somewhere underwater." Greer says, "Deploy the fleet. We need to scour every inch of that ocean."


	15. In Mortal Danger

The base alarms go off. The Council meets in the Grand Command Center. "Report", says The General. The Hellhound replies, "Weather Column dissipated, Alliance Military Fleet just came out of hyperspace." Chrissy says, "ShadowCorp knows we're on the planet, and we're underwater. We need to cloak our entrance, our ventilation shaft, and block any sensor readings." The Hellhound smiles. "Already done. I also have an EMP buried beneath the entrance should it come to that. Those SCIkers really helped." Chrissy smiles. "Good work. Now, we need a way to draw away their suspicion." The General mentions the obvious, "but we're trapped in here." Polaris smiles. "I'm going to need some time, but I think I can convince ShadowCorp that the weather maker was a trap to lure them in." The General exclaimed, "How the hell are you going to do that?" Chrissy smiles. "Give me an hour."

She rounds up Athena and Solaris, and tell them the plan. They start drawing out some wicked, wicked complex calculations. When they reach a consensus, they all get giddy. They all start drawing schematics and and stuff. Within half an hour it's finalized. The three of them report to The Council. "We've come up with algorithms that will allow us to enter hyperspace from inside our bunker, and come out of hyperspace, inside our bunker." The General exlaimed, "WHAT????" Chrissy, Amber, and Jessica smile. Polaris hands The General a data pad. "If their computers aren't up to snuff, it might take them longer to processes, but any hyperspace capable ship should be able to do it. Also, we'll need exact coordinates in tune with the rotation of the planet and the sun, through space, through fixed references. So we're going to have to install navigation beams. But we need beams that can't be detected by ShadowCorp but can be detected by our hyperspace computers. Next we create a series of perfectly round rocks that weigh exactly 3.14159kg. The software is used to detect these in BarterWorld space, and use it as a nav beacon. One will be placed in each ship hold. We come in, contact The General, who tells us which hold to jump into, and then we do so."

The General says, "That sounds like science fiction, even for you." Chrissy said, "It will work. The next part, is actually attacking and defeating the entire fleet. I've modified my Electron Force Cannon to be an Electron Slice Cannon." She hops into her ship, pushes some buttons, and it just disappears in a flash of light.

High above Barterworld were 3 Dreadnoughts, 5 Carriers, 10 Destroyers, and fighters all going into the ocean to look for the base. They were outfitted with shields. Chrissy came out of Hyperspace and broadcast on an open channel. "Glad you got my invitation, ShadowCorp". She flew so fast and nimble that not a single ship was able to get a lock on her, let alone fire a shot. She sliced through ships, big and small, with her Electron Slice Cannon. Chunks of Dreadnoughts were being torn off, Destroyers were cut in half, and Carriers were shredded. It wasn't 2 minutes in when Abraxis orders a full retreat. As soon as they enter hyperspace, Chrissy does too, and appears back inside the base.

The General says, "I quit! Really! I quit! My heart can't take any more of this! What the fuck was that? Huh?" She goes up and hugs The General. "Come on now, you know you love me." The General smiles. "Don't scare me like that again, okay?" Chrissy smiles. "I can't make any promises." The Hellhound said, "What the hell happened up there?" Chrissy answered, "In order to free Black Sam from Abraxis, I needed superior martial skill that I didn't have. So I made a portable shield, as well as an electron blade. It's basically a projection of electrons as dense as tungsten carbide, but with thinness that surpassed atoms. I sliced through the Military and Abraxis, taking his head, which they later turned him into a cyborg. I already had an electron weapon on my ship, but it was a concussion blast to knock ships into each other. I modified it so it worked like that blade, but instead of the density of tungsten carbide, I made it with the density of dwarf star metal. And I shredded their ships. I was too fast and too maneuverable to be hit, and I carved up even their dreadnoughts. Their dreadnoughts survived, but sustained heavy hull and frame damage. It was brutal enough that they had to cut their losses."

The General said, "We might win this war afterall." Chrissy replied, "Well not so fast. Abraxis was hit hard and fast and virtually anything could have cut through his power armor. But to cut through those ships so effectively, ShadowCorp will definitely figure out what kind of weapon I used, and develop a defense to it. And it's going to be expensive. We're making ShadowCorp bleed money, and The Corporation won't tolerate that for long. That's the biggest victory, is how much fighting us is costing them." The General smiled. "Well it's definitely a huge victory." Black Sam chimed in, "The Council has deliberated on it, and Polaris, we think you should be the Commander in Chief, and that the highest rated SCIKER should always hold that position. Chrissy smiles. "I don't want power, but I agree with your assessment. We'll need to draft up a formal document about balance of power and all that." The General chimed in, "We're already working on it."

Everyone on BarterWorld could see that definitive space battle, the explosions were so bright. Everyone was talking about the Legendary Polaris and her Black Sam Pirates. People breathed easy for the first time in years. BarterWorld was no longer under The Alliance's thumb.


	16. The Beginning of The End

Back on Earth at ShadowCorp headquarters, Agent Greer was on the receiving a rather vigorous ass chewing. "Yes sir, I know we're hemorrhaging money, we lost an entire fleet, and those Dreadnoughts are beyond repair. This Polaris is way more resourceful than we ever anticipated. Yes sir, I know we failed, time and time again. No sir, we don't need.... Sir? Oh. That kind of explains a lot. Yes, sir."

Just then a man walks into ShadowCorp. "Agent Abbadon. I'm the new Head of ShadowCorp, former strategist to THE CEO and CHAIRMAN, and I'm acting on his orders." The room is silent. "I want Chrissy Meier alive. She's my daughter. Her and I are the only SCIKER 25's in existence." The room was aghast. "SCIKER 25? Are you shitting me? What in gods name are you?" Agent Abbadon said, "Really damn close. We're just about Gods."

Abbadon continued. "Now that you know Polaris is a SCIKER 25, some things should be clear to you. There's no way you would have ever caught her. You're like literal babies compared to her. But you did provide useful information for me. Polaris IS the man in black. Polaris IS the one who rescued General Watts. Polaris IS in league with the Crimean Syndicate. Polaris IS on BarterWorld. Polaris knew about Samael long before she acted. Polaris knew about ShadowCorp while she was still a SciCorp agent. And Polaris knows that we will abduct her through her girlfriend, and destroy BarterWorld."

Greer said, "I can already tell it would take me months to follow your line of thought. What do you want us to do?" Abbadon said, "Abraxis, I want you to take over as Military Governor of BarterWorld. Make people afraid of us again. You're not fighting Polaris, you're just kicking out a lazy politician." Abraxis replied, "Yes sir. Iron Fist approach?" Abraxis smiled. "The rest of you, I want you to offer your services as ex-SciCorp Agents who can fix, repair things, and can obtain quality goods using questionable methods. Make Boss Velazquez a shit ton of money. Then eventually, an opportunity will present itself. HOWEVER, if you identify Polaris, DO NOT ENGAGE. You will lose. Your only task is to identify her girlfriend, and if possible, kidnap her. This is a long term surveillance mission. You are not to make a move without my say so. Understood?" The four of them said "Yes, Sir" in unison and left for the spaceport.

On the way to BarterWorld, Joffrey asked Greer a question. "How could he know what his daughter knows? Isn't that getting into the psychic territory?" Greer responds, "He's probably watched every second of her life. Little cues that we would have missed were clear as day to him. But the real question is, if Abbadon is her father, then who did we kill to get her into SciCorp?" Raymond said, "If he's seen every second of her life, then he must have willingly gave her up. What father gives up his daughter? Especially when she's that unique?" 

Agent Abraxis quickly executes the Military Governor of BarterWorld and has an elite team of Alliance Military soldiers start collecting five times the taxes. He institutes a curfew of 7pm. Anyone out after 7pm gets shot. There are troops stationed at every spaceport and landing zone, where each ship is manually searched by Alliance Military soldiers. Needless to say, this put a dampener on the Crimean Syndicate's activities. Boss Velazquez, in the privacy of his underground club, was understandably upset. "I'll fucking kill him!" Fox, who was there on business when the takeover happened, tried to calm him down. "He has the Alliance Army backing him. He's ShadowCorp. Who knows what they would do if we deposed of him. You just need to charge higher prices and request more protection money. Matter of fact, hire Alliance Military people to work double duty." Boss Velazquez thought for a second. "You're brilliant." 

 Boss Velazquez sent a messenger to tell Military Governor Abraxis that he wished to meet. Abraxis approved the meeting agreed to meet Velazquez at his underground club. Upon coming down the freight elevator, Abraxis was greeted with dozens of topless women, all matter of finery, including alcohol, drugs, contraband food and drinks, gambling, and everything a corrupt politician could want. Boss Velazquez welcomed him. "Military Governor Abraxis. Or should I say, ShadowCorp Agent Abraxis. Welcome!" Abraxis looks at him with a straight face, unmoving. Boss Velazquez said, "I would like to offer my services to you and your men. I know that we can make an arrangement where I can keep doing my business dealings..." Abraxis answered, "Me and my men have been given a shit duty. This is light years beneath me. But my new boss is the scariest person imaginable. I'd rather fight Polaris any day." Boss Velazquez offered sympathy. "Is there anything I can do to make the stay for you and your men less painful?" Abraxis answered, "Well now that you mention it, I'm taxing your businesses a lot heavier than my predecessor. So you're going to have to raise the prices for your goods and "services"... including protection, am I right?" Boss Velazquez says, "Absolutely." Abraxis continued, "Well, if people can't pay their taxes, or they can't pay their debts, then they need to be turned over to me. And we'll have some fun. I want you to open a Gladiator Arena. Those who can't pay, they get to fight my champions." Boss Velazquez knew when someone had him by the jimmies, and Abraxis definitely had him by the jimmies. "Of course. I'll get on it immediately." Abraxis answered, "Any more discussions?" Boss Velazquez said, "I have such clubs all over the planet. Your men are welcome there and will receive great discounts. However, you are invited to join this, my personal club, any time you like, Military Governor Abraxis." Abraxis smiled. "I might just take you up on that offer." And then Abraxis left. After they were cleared out, Fox said, "You heard what Abraxis said about his new boss. I need to warn our mutual friend." Boss Velazquez nodded. "Be careful."

Shortly thereafter four people were coming down the freight elevator. "Who the hell are you?" Velazquez's right hand man said. "We're ex-SciCorp engineers that are on the run. We're looking for work. We can help you get tech, and make tech too." Boss Velazquez said, "How good are you at structural and mechanical engineering?" Greer said, "excellent." Boss Velazques said, "Then your first job is to assist my men in building Abraxis' Gladiator Arena. Go to my warehouse and speak to Jake." They nodded and headed out.


	17. The Dire Truth

Fox came into the base and called an emergency Council meeting. The Council members rushed to the Grand Command Center. Fox began the debriefing. "So as you know, ShadowCorp Agent Abraxis is now the Military Governor of BarterWorld." Chrissy interjected, "You can bet the rest of the ShadowCorp are now working as engineers for Velazquez." Fox continued, "But it gets worse. Abraxis called this a shit detail that was way beneath him, but his new boss was a scary motherfucker. He said he'd rather fight Polaris than him any day of the week." Chrissy screamed incoherently and ran from the room. When the others found her, she was in her room with a plasma pistol barrel in her mouth. When they closed in, she yelled, "Get back! Just let me off myself! Then none of you will have to die!" Amber walked over to her and set down beside you. "You know who the boss is, and he scares you this much?" Chrissy nods with the gun still in her mouth. She pulled the gun out of her mouth, but instead pointed it at her temple, on the side opposite of Amber. "When I first found out my Tech was being used to hurt people, by ShadowCorp, I found out something else. Something that made me put a plasma pistol in my mouth. There's a man. He's the Chief Analyst to The CEO and Chairman of The Corporation. That was the first time someone with a public profile and member of the general public scared me. For some reason, I could access his classified personnel files. He's a Level 25 SCIKER. And the only other Level 25 SCIKER in existence... is his daughter..."

A collective round of people saying "FUCK" can be heard for about two minutes. Chrissy answers, "Yeah, fuck. He already knows everything I've done. He knows ShadowCorp is powerless to stop me without his guidance. He's targeting you, Amber. He's going to give the order to destroy BarterWorld." Amber hugs Chrissy. "We can't give up! You have friends." Chrissy answers, "Friends who will die if we fight him. He's ruthless. He's evil. He's been a strategist for The CEO and Chairman since before I was born. He's just better at it. He has all the angles planned. There's no reason for this entire fucking planet to die. Just let me kill myself and hand my body over to him. Billions of lives will be saved." Amber slaps Chrissy's face hard. "FUCK THAT. FUCK YOU IF YOU THINK I'M GOING TO LET YOU DIE!" She uses Chrissy's disbelief and shock to snatch the gun from Chrissy. "Confine her to quarters. Take anything dangerous from her. Chrissy, you need time to process. I'm not giving up on you. There has to be another way." Jessica came over and tugged at Amber's skirt. "Come see." Amber followed her. "What am I looking at?" Jessica whispers in her ear and Amber's eyes go wide. "Really? Let me see those calculations... I can't make heads or tails of them. Give me a moment." She takes the notepad to Chrissy. "Look at what Jessica came up with. Can you find a flaw in her math?" Chrissy absentmindedly looked at it and said, "Nope, looks really good. What is this? A mass independent hyperdrive system? The energy requirements look astronomical." Chrissy curled back in bed. But Amber was smiling and happy, with a spring in her step. Amber didn't care what Chrissy's test said. Jessica was every bit at smart as Chrissy. And with a child's imagination, a lot more resourceful.

After about 3 days of confinement to quarters, Chrissy said to the soldiers at her door, "I need to see Amber." The guard said, "She's unavailable at the moment, but The General would like to see you if you're up to it." Chrissy nodded and went looking for The General. The General motioned for Chrissy to follow her to the Grand Command Center. "How are you feeling, Polaris?" Chrissy sighed. "Depressed. Amber seems to be in good spirits and optimistic, but I read my father's dossier." The General smiles. "Chrissy, you don't have to fight him alone. He only considers you to be the relevant piece on the board. But you have more support than he knows. He doesn't know your girlfriend is a SCIKER 9.8. He doesn't know that this precious child Jessica is a SCIKER level 18. We can do this." Chrissy says, "General, I need you to keep a secret. If you tell anyone, I will immediately turn myself into my father. And none of you will be able to stop me." The General nods. "I lied about Jessica. She's not an 18. She's a 25. She's a clone of me made by my dad. She must never know that she is a clone. Our genetic code is identical. I'm 100% sure of that. As scared as I am of him, I'm more scared for Jessica. He doesn't know that I've found her." The General has tears in her eyes. "Your father's quite a bastard eh? She was a refugee and we took her in because of the robot." Chrissy said, "That was a good call. But she's not safe here for long." The General replies, "I know. Just give us time. We can figure something out."

When they were finished, Jessica came looking for Chrissy. "Chri, I mean Polaris... Can I talk to you in private?" She smiled. "Of course." She leads Jessica to her room. Jessica immediately hugs Chrissy. "I heard you tried to hurt yourself." Chrissy noded. "Yes. I did." Jessica asks, "Why?" Chrissy answered, "Because a very power and bad man is looking for me, and I'm scared he'll kill everyone to get to me." Jessica says, "That is scary. Is it Father?" Chrissy jumps back a little bit. "You mean my father?" Jessica shakes her head. "No silly, OUR Father." Chrissy is shocked. "You know we're sisters?" Jessica says, "YEP!" Chrissy asks, "Do you know we're identical?" Jessica says, "Genetically, yes!" Chrissy is on the verge of tears. "You know that you are a clone of me?" Jessica says, "Yes, but a clone is biologically no different than a twin. I'm my own person. For all practical purposes I'm your identical little sister." Chrissy give Jessica a huge hug and doesn't let go for five minutes. "Hello little sister..." She hugs back hard. "Hello big sister." After a nice long hug, Jessica whispers something to Chrissy. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Ridiculous, but your math is right." Jessica whispers something else to Chrissy and Chrissy's eyes go wide, her jaw drops, and she picks Jessica up with a hug and spins her around giggling. "You clever little sister. That's right on the money."


	18. Finally, A Battle Plan

Chrissy, Jessica, and Amber call an emergency meeting of The Council. Everyone meets in the Grand Command Center. Chrissy starts off the meeting. "First of all, I want you to know I lied about Jessica. She's every bit as smart as me. I hid it because she's my identical twin little sister." The General sighed a sigh of relief that was noticeable. Amber looked shocked. The Hellhound asked, "What does that even mean?" The General chimed in. "Chrissy's father cloned her and that clone is Jessica." Jessica spoke up. "I am my own person, however. I have a different past, different memories, and a different identity. Dad ordered my creation. As soon as I was physically able, I escaped SciCorp. It was quite easy. I knew the best bet for me was on BarterTown. I had hacked into enough of the files to know what Dad did to me, and that I had a sister, so I sought her out. I figured if I built an AI enabled robot, it would get someone's attention." Chrissy smiles. "So clever" Jessica smiles at Chissy. Chrissy continues, "Jessica has done something else. She's giving us a way to save BarterWorld. It's highly dangerous. It will require a lot of prep time. And it will require resources. Jessica, Amber, and I have created a list of materials we'll need and their quantities. I need everyone not doing essential services to go out with as many cloaked ships as we have, and get these resources. There are going to be technical difficulties, but we can overcome them. But the timing has to be exact. The exact details of what we are attempting must stay exclusive to The Council. No one else can know what it is we're working on." Chrissy pulls up plans on the big screen. The General says, "You're fucking joking." Jessica smiles, "Not even in the slightest." The Hellhound says, "This is completely mental. And suicidal. And if we pull it off, holy shit."

While most of the the Base staff were out acquiring materials, everyone SCIKER 4 and higher was helping with fabrication. Chrissy had given them all schematics and build diagrams with detailed instructions. The SCIKER 6's and the SCIKER 7 immediately knew what they were making, but when they were about to exclaim their surprise, Jessica shushed them. They smiled and went back to work. It was tough work. These had to be made to exact specifications. And even once they finished them, there's the matter of installing them and running conduit. It was a tremendous undertaking that was not going to happen overnight. This was going to take months and months. Black Sam and his team tried to keep up the raids to keep SciCorp or ShadowCorp from thinking anything was up. But if any of the raided stuff was on the list, they claimed it for the Black Sam Pirates.

In the meantime, Chrissy and Amber had plenty of alone time together. Hot, sweaty, wet, loud alone time. Chrissy did her best to let go of the future and enjoy every moment with Amber. And it was the best months of her life. Before everything went horribly wrong.


	19. Kidnapped

Agent Abbadon was on comms screaming at Abraxis, Brennan, Raymond, Greer, and Jeffrey. "It's been EIGHT WHOLE MONTHS. How in hell could you have ZERO information about Christine's girlfriend after all this time? ARE YOU COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT? Abraxis, you have access to the inner sanctum of the Crimean Syndicate who is supplying the Black Sam Pirates. Brennan, Raymond, Greer, and Jeffrey, YOU FUCKING WORK THERE! How can you all be... so... fuck." Agent Abbadon asked, "Who among you has the highest SCIKER level?" Abraxis said, "I do." Abbadon asked, "What is it?" Abraxis said "8.6." Abbadon said, "Of course. Your total failure is that EVEN HER GIRLFRIEND IS SMARTER THAN THE LOT OF YOU." They collectively said, "oh, fuck." Abbadon said, "Yeah, oh fuck. Well that means I have to fucking come to BarterWorld. I'll tell you the plan en route." And so Agent Abbadon headed to the spacedock and picked up a really nice ship, and headed to BarterWorld.

Abbadon arrived on a luxury yacht and landed at the Crimean Spaceport as opposed to the BarterWorld Spaceport. Military Governor Abraxis was waiting for him. "Mr. Kennedy, it's such an honor for you to visit our world." Abraxis smiles. "It is, isn't it?" Abraxis continues, "Please take me to see Mr. Velazquez. I have an interesting proposal for him." Abraxis shuttles him to the Diner, and leads him down the freight elevator to Boss Velazquez's club. "Mr. Velazquez, I have someone you will want to meet. This is Mr. Kennedy." Boss Velazquez replied, "Mr. Kennedy? Of KennedyCorp? The largest subsidiary of The Corporation?" Abbadon smiles. "The Same." Boss Velazquez asks, "How can I help you Mr. Kennedy?" Abbadon says, "I understand you need to build a stadium. I'd like to help fund it, and sell front row tickets to rich offworlders." Boss Velazquez repsonds, "How can I say no to that? Does that work, Governor Abraxis?" Abraxis nods. "Absolutely." Abbadon says, "If you don't mind, I'd like to oversee the project personally. I'm kind of a hands on kind of guy. Do you have a place where I can set up a command post to work on all the details? I hear from Abraxis you have some new engineers for the project. They can work directly for me." Boss Velazquez says, 'Sure, we have plenty of room down here, pull some tables together and enjoy our... amenities." Abbadon smiled. "That's exactly what I like to hear. Here's the credit transfer. I will be auditing every penny, so spend it wisely." Boss Velazquez, says, "Of course, Mr. Kennedy."

Just as Abbadon was getting settled in, Fox walks in. "Boss, here's the stuff you wanted... who's the cutie in the suit?" Abbadon chimed up, "I'm just a client. No one important. I'm assisting Boss Velazquez with his arena project." She nods. "Like an architect or something?" Abbadon says, "or something." Fox passes the package to Boss Velazquez. It's a box with a coded message in it. Basically it reads, "Abraxis is ShadowCorp, you probably have ShadowCorp engineers working for you. Be careful." Boss Velazquez nods and says, "Thanks. I'll have your shipment ready tomorrow." Fox nods, turns and leaves. Abbadon speaks up, "She's quite pretty. You know her long?" Boss Velazquez said, "Yeah she was my best smuggler back in the day. The she dropped off the radar. Said she got in some trouble she needed to shake off. Then one day, she just appears again, like nothing had ever happened. Doesn't really seem keen on talking about it." Abbadon nods and continues work. As he's drawing up his plans, he's drawing them to look like an actual architect is drawing them, but he's drawing them in such a way that anyone with any intelligence is going to find a flaw and declare that he was incompetent. But someone who is truly intelligent will see that it was done on purpose, and that an earthquake, large explosion, or other such event, could cause the stands to collapse in such a way as it would kill everyone in the stands, and it was on purpose. Of course the blueprints that his engineers are using look very similar to this, but are actually designed to be stable and last a long time. The blueprints he's drawn here are a trap.

Abbadon spends a month or two here and the only one he sees is Fox coming in on a regular basis. He had Abraxis monitor Boss Velazquez's warehouse port, and the only real regular who comes in consistently is Fox. Abbadon says, "We know Fox has covered for Polaris, so they definitely know each other. But considering she's the only one making regular supply runs, she's definitely a part of the Black Sam Pirates. Abraxis, have someone tail her. Make it obvious." Abraxis replies, "Yes, sir." It only takes a short amount of time before Fox knows she has a tail. When she gets back to base, she calls up Boss Velazquez, "I've got a mystery man tail, so I'm going to have to lay low. We're going to send people at random." Boss Velazquez replies, "As long as I get my shipments on time." Fox replies, "Be careful sir." And she hangs up. Fox calls a meeting of The Council, and they meet in the Grand Command Center.

"My cover has been blown. I have a very obvious tail so I have to lay low for awhile." Chrissy looks worried. "What is it Polaris?" Chrissy says, "It feels like a trap. Abraxis didn't come up with this. It feels like my father's doing." Fox says, "Your father doesn't know any of us." Chrissy responds, "No one over SCIKER 5 should visit BarterTown unless it's an extreme emergency. Especially avoid The Crimean Syndicate." The General asked, "Why?" Chrissy replied, "My father has probably some way to detect high SCIKER levels. They haven't made a move yet, which means they don't know Amber is my girlfriend. I intend to keep it that way." The Council agreed.

After the Council meeting, Amber approached The General. "Can I talk to you, in private?" The General leads her to her quarters. 'What can I help you with?" Amber confesses, "I want to buy an engagement ring for Chrissy. But I'll need to go see Boss Velazquez to make sure I don't get ripped off." The General says, "You know what Chrissy said, it's probably a trap." Amber countered, none of them know my name, what I look like, and none of them are psychic. It will be just a quick visit to buy a ring. I'll be right back." The General said, "I'm not going to give you clearance to go. But I'm not going to stop you either. Whatever happens, it's on you. " Amber smiled and took off.

In twenty minutes, Amber was coming down the freight elevator and met with the Bouncer. "I was referred by Fox. I have business with Boss Velazquez. The man escorted her into the main club. Boss Velazquez said, "So you're a friend of Fox's?" Amber said, "Yeah I used to be her mechanic. Keep the ship ship shape." Boss Velazquez asked, "What can I help you with?" She replied, "I'm looking for an engagement ring, but I need to know a place that won't rip me off." Abbadon stood up. "I'm Mr. Kennedy of KennedyCorp. We have a wonderful selection of wedding rings. Shall I fetch you a catalog?" Amber smiles, "Thank you but I'd like to see the pieces in person." Abbadon replied, "It's a shame. I came here on other business and didn't think to bring any samples. I'm helping Boss Velazquez build a Gladiator stadium for Military Governor Abraxis. What do you think?" She looks at the design and laughs. "I like it." She turns back to Boss Velazquez. Abbadon smiles. "Excuse me miss, but why did you laugh?" Amber said without thinking, "Because it's funny." Abbadon smiles even more. "Why is it funny..." Amber replies, "I don't know, watching rich, self entitled people who think poor people fighting for their entertainment dying horrible gruesome deaths sounds pretty funny to me." Abbadon laughs out loud and starts to clap. "Well done, future Mrs. Christine Meier."

All the color drained from Amber's face. Christine was right the whole time. BarterWorld is really going to be destroyed. She barely manages to speak because she's so afraid, "You're Chrissy's father... oh fucking god... no... don't touch me..." And she was out like a light.

 

 


	20. The Resuce

Every radio frequency on BarterWorld was going off. If there were video devices you could see Abbadon standing with a captive Amber in shackles next to him. "Polaris, aka Ward 7 ex-SciCorp Agent Christine Meier. Or should I say Julie Maher. Your mother hid you, put you up for adoption, but taught you how to hide your power. She died painfully when she wouldn't reveal your location. By the time I caught up with you, you were SciCorp Ward 7. I couldn't have been prouder. But I guess my interest backfired, and you learned some unpleasant truths. I have your girlfriend, Amber was it? You will come aboard my Dreadnought, and you will surrender yourself. If you come back to Earth with me and help me run ShadowCorp, then I'll let BarterWorld live. If you defy me, I'll kill Amber and blow BarterWorld to smithereens. You have one hour."

Chrissy is already in her ship. She's loaded down with gizmos. Her ship jumps to hyperspace. "Polaris to Abbadon I'm here. Let me in." Abbadon comes on the comms. "Welcome, daughter. You made the right choice." Chrissy docks in the docking bay. When she emerges from her ship, she is not wearing any of the gear she was wearing when she entered her ship. She's wearing a sports top, capri pants, and seemingly nothing else. She is escorted to a holding cell opposite of Amber. They are sealed in with force fields. Abbadon is in Amber's chamber torturing her. Amber's screams make Chrissy cry and scream, "STOP IT YOU GOD DAMNED FUCKING MONSTER." Abbadon says, "You see Chrissy, this is the most ingenious torture device ever implemented. It does absolutely no damage to the subject. There are alternating pieces of metal insulated from each other, each about the size of a pin head. They are so close together, despite the insulation, that they appear as an almost flat singular surface. It really just looks textured. And yet they're interpolated. The "odd field" pins are cooled to 32 degrees F. And the "even field" pins are heated to 111 degrees F. If I don't touch her with it too long, there is zero chance of skin damage. But, having the extreme cold and extreme heat so close together tricks the body. It effectively tricks the body into thinking the difference between the cold temperature and the hot temperature is actually the same difference between it's normal body temperature and the experienced temperature. In layman's terms, this device would take about six hours of constant application to hurt her, but it feels like it's burning her at 177F, which if it were actually applied it would cause severe burning in less than a second." Abbadon continued to press the torture device against Amber's flesh but then Chrissy says something. 

"Any time sis." Abbadon turned around immediately. "What did you say?" Chrissy played coy. "Oh nothing. Nothing at all." Abbadon was enraged. "Tell me or I will show her new levels of pain." At that exact moment, the power went down, the force fields went down, and Chrissy dropped her holographic field. She is armed to the teeth with tech. She pushes a button on the palm of her glove while pointing it at Abbadon, and a dart pierces his skin. "What did you do to me?" Chrissy explains, "Well I gave you a syrum, made by my little identical twin sister, Jessica, that increases your neural processing rate. Your neural processing rate is already pretty darn high. The problem is that here pretty quick, your brain neurons are going to fire at a speed that completely surpasses your motor neuron speed. As a result you'll loose control of your body. Also, my voice will start to sound slow and distorted as your perception of time changes, where seconds feel like years, and then decades, and then millennia. And now I'm going to take your torture device and put it in your pants. And that's what you get for messing with my girlfriend." Chrissy takes the torture device, pulls on Abbadon's pants, and shoves the torture device against his junk. He tries to scream, but his cranial neurons are firing too fast for his motor neurons to comply. She frees Amber from her chains and says, "Follow me." She practically has to carry Amber back to her ship. She presses the shield button on her hip, and pulls out her electron sword. It takes her a lot longer to carve through the soldiers because she's shouldering Amber's weight. Once the path was cleared, she put Amber in a SciCorp hyperdrive capable ship, punched in the software to allow it to jump to inside the base, and she does so. Amber appears safely inside the base as Jessica immediately starts taking out all of the SciCorp bugs. Chrissy then makes it to her ship, and that's when the Alliance Military Commander realizes Polaris is escaping.

There's a small issue when you are fleeing in one direction and people directly behind you are shooting at you with big fuck all cannons. It's an entirely different game than attacking. Chrissy is going max speed towards the planet, and taking heavy fire. She engages emergency landing proceedures and prepares to crash, because max thrusters plus acceleration due to gravity can be a lethal combination.


	21. The End of BarterWorld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you want to play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzdjMLKKdgk while reading this, this is the song that inspired this section.

Chrissy wakes up. She's well outside of the populated area, in a fine white sand desert. You see from a distance strange concentric circle indentions in the sand. Chrissy's landing system created a 5 mile forcefield, and when the force of the landing started to cause force feedback that could have destroyed the force field emitters, it disengages and makes a slightly smaller one, all the way until there's one final shield impact before the ship hits the sand hard. The wings and engines are torn off. her cockpit is torn open. She's still strapped in her seat. She has a compound fracture on her left forearm. She pulls out a device that clamps down on it and holds it in place. She screams for the pain. She pulls the broken control panel that's free from it's mounting and checks the ship's systems. Then she looks up. She can see a large Dreadnought preparing a planet destroying beam.

She works furiously at the console to bring up shields to protect the planet from the beam using her ship's power force. It comes up just as soon as the beam collides with it. She then activates a routine that shoots video of her at the crash site to every television on Earth through the hacked Alliance Military ship. She's talking about how The Alliance is destroying BarterWorld, the entire planet. How the Alliance worlds are slave worlds that make the luxury goods they consume. How everything they know and believe is a lie purported by The Corporation.

The heat from the ship's reactor is getting high. Chrissy's skin is turning dark from radiating heat coming off the reactor. She says she doesn't have much time before her reactor goes critical. She urges everyone to stand up to the injust tyrrany of the Corporation. She's about to collapse as she's reaching for a cable nearby coming from a tower inside the shield. She connects the cable to the ship just as the planet explodes.

The people of Earth are aghast. They just watched the decimation of over 9 billion people. In less than half an hour, you can see the fires from orbit.

The End


	22. But not quite...

Ten weeks later, Chrissy wakes up. Amber, Jessica, and The General are all standing over her. Chrissy weakly asks, "I'm guessing it worked?" Amber scolded her, "I knew you were short on time but damn you sure didn't make it easy on yourself." Chrissy weakly rubs Jessica's head. "Kiddo, your idea worked. It actually worked." The Hellhound is still looking dumbfounded. "I can't believe that fucking worked." The General said, "The Council met, and decided you should let BarterWorld know what happened." Chrissy smiled. "Alright, let's get it done." They set up a video recorder so Chrissy could record from her hospital bed. The signal was omcommed to every device capable of displaying video and or voice on the planet. "People of Bartertown... you've waited a while to hear just why we are in a new solar system. Yes, we are in a new solar system. My girlfriend and little sister helped me save BarterWorld from ShadowCorp, and more specifically, my father. We are deep inside the unexplored region of space. As such, we're basically a new planet. We created a planet-wide hyperspace drive and flew BarterWorld to a whole new solar system in the Outer Rim. As cheesy as it sound, Polaris has a nice ring, don't you think? Abraxis and his ShadowCorp members are put on notice. You are not in charge of this world. The free people of Polaris are. We will be holding a conference with citizens and business leaders on what direction we want this world to take. But my team will always be there to fight fascism, totalitarianism, and capitalism. This doesn't mean you can't make a buck. It means making a buck off someone else's labor is predatory. Let's form partnerships and cooperatives. Let's work collectively. Let's create a social safety net. Let's make a government designed to protect people from fascism and predatory capitalism. This doesn't mean we need to embrace marxist philosophies. It just means we have to understand that workers are the engine of economy, and they need to be the most important class. They are the class that drives spending. Let's make a commitment to a Consumer's Market, and do away forever with the Investor's Market.

Now that we have no external governments to live up to, the Syndicates no longer have to be Syndicates. Let us celebrate all types of work, and not shame women for the work they do. Let's allow any consenting adult to indulge, but get the help if they have a problem with addiction. Let's criminalize much, much, much less, and help a lot more. Let's make a government that actually made up of the people, and not career politicians. Lets make sure that while businesses have a voice, they do not have a vote. Let's keep the vote clean from the influence of money. Let's make businesses operate in the public interest. Let's rethink everything. On my team, we have the smartest people in the galaxy. But we need your input. Because we can only know our world. We can't know your world. And we have to make a new world that's good for all of us. Down with The Corporation. We should really vote for a new planet name. But if we chose Polaris, decades or hundreds of years from now when The Alliance found us, they would know. And they would know what to expect."

Amber commented when the broadcast was over. "A new day is dawning, isn't it?" Chrissy said, "Here as on Earth too." And they kissed.

The End

For real this time


	23. Historical Context of this work

When I first heard Queen's A Night At The Opera, I started seeing finished parts of a movie in my head to this story. I started writing it down in 2004. It's a shame that it took me so long to hear this epic album, but it was also fortunate that I had the faculties to persue this vision. Initially the script/novel was called "Freddy", and I wanted a bisexual man who looked like Freddy to be the main hero, as a tribute to the late great Freddy Mercury. The earliest memories I have are of Queen, Styx, and Foreigner, and of those, Queen will always be my favorite. I went through so many drafts never happy with it, never making it to the end. In 2014, I realized that I was bigender and bisexual. I was assigned male at birth. But I still made Freddy a male character for quite a while thereafter. A couple of years later my trans friend said that the abilities that I gave Freddy were too much like The Force and that I should make it a StarWars fandom book about a world that didn't formally recognize The Force. I tried that out and got fairly far, but wound up deleting it because it just didn't fit with my vision. And then eventually, in 2016, I wrote this version and opened it up to others. I don't want copyright this, because I think other authors can take this idea and turn it into something better.

In the End, this started off as a Tribute to Freddy Mercury. But due to copyright and other issues, I can't really do that vision, so I did a different vision that is a more modern tale.


End file.
